IRELAND’S largest pizza chain Apache is creating 75 jobs by opening five new pizzerias in the north in the next six months in as yet unnamed locations.
It is part of a wider expansion within the Dublin-headquartered business, which will bring its total Irish estate to 190 and its payroll to 2,750.
Overall, Apache will add 300 new jobs and open all 20 new stores over the next six months, building on its success in having already created 195 new jobs with the opening of 13 outlets in 2020.
The new roles include supervisors, managers, customer service representatives and delivery couriers. The company is also seeking franchisees who want to flourish in their local cities and towns.
Apache Pizza was founded in Dublin in 1996 and expanded into Northern Ireland in 2016 when it opened in Portadown.
It has since opened a further 13 stores in the north in Armagh, Banbridge, Bangor, Belfast (Antrim Road and Bradbury Place), Derry, Downpatrick, Enniskillen, Lisburn, Omagh, Strabane, Limavady and Magherafelt.
The chain served 5.3 million pizzas to customers during the Covid-19 pandemic, which helped it to record a 12 per cent increase in online sales during 2020.
Overall sales continue to rise and are up 17 per cent for the first four months of this year.
Chief executive Martin Lyons said: “Apache Pizza is the market leader for pizza delivery in Ireland with 169 stores wherever people want quality pizza.
“We are local to homes, businesses and schools, and being local is what is driving our plan to open 20 new stores and to create another 300 new jobs by the end of this year.”
He added: “Ours is an incredible success story and we're delighted to celebrate 25 years in business this month.
“Our store model is proudly focused on being local, on offering delivery and take-out and on making quality, tasty pizzas which can be enjoyed anywhere at any time,” he said.
“We have invested in making online ordering easier and more accessible prior to Covid-19. We capitalised on that throughout the pandemic as people spent more time at home and ordered-in.”
He said Apache's rapid expansion into cities and towns is being driven by its ability to offer business partners a low level investment opportunity, attractive profitability and a quick return on their investment.
Apache Pizza was founded by Robert Pendleton and his wife Emily Gore Grimes, who no longer manage the business. It is now owned by Food Delivery Brands, the largest and most geographically diversified pizza delivery master franchiser in the world by store numbers and by OKR Group, Ireland’s leading QSR franchise operator.
Meanwhile hairdressers, students and taxi drivers who worked at Domino's when their businesses were closed during the pandemic are abandoning the pizza chain to go back to their old roles, freeing up thousands of jobs.
The business said it is looking to hire around 5,000 people as these temporary staff members call time on their lives as pizza chefs or delivery drivers.
Demand is not slowing down, despite the economy reopening, according to Domino’s, which runs around 1,100 sites across the UK.
