Business

Record year for Four Star Pizza after spike in online sales

Four Star Pizza employee Jack Morris with the company's director, Brian Clarke
Four Star Pizza employee Jack Morris with the company's director, Brian Clarke Four Star Pizza employee Jack Morris with the company's director, Brian Clarke

FOUR Star pizza has said a 17 per cent rise in online sales contributed to a record year in 2019.

The Irish-owned pizza chain said last year was its best year since it was founded in 1986.

Five new outlets were opened across the island during 2019, creating 90 jobs.

Four Star now has 60 restaurants around the island, including 14 in the north.

“We’re thrilled to announce a record year for Four Star Pizza,” said company director Brian Clarke.

The development of our online ordering system has made it easier than ever for customers to place an order with us, and the introduction of our Four Star Pizza loyalty programme has been a huge success in terms of driving online sales.”

The director said the pizza chain will seek to open another five stores in 2020, but said: “It is very important that we protect our franchisees who can rest assured that we will not open another Four Star Pizza store on their patch – but this does create a ‘capacity ceiling’ for us that will ultimately limit potential growth.

“Our core markets of Belfast, Dublin and Cork have already pretty much reached saturation point which means that it is important for us to focus on expanding the brand outside of these areas.

“So, whilst there is still room for growth in other parts of Ireland - and we are always looking out for new franchise opportunities - we know that with every new store, our potential for future growth is slowing down,” he said.

“What this means from a wider business perspective is that we are now seriously looking at expanding our operations into the GB market, which is very exciting, and we certainly expect to see some developments in that respect over the next 12 months.”