Vancouver’s Boston Pizza is making plans to move east into Ontario in hopes of taking a real slice out of the province’s casual dining restaurant business.
‘By next summer, we hope to have a minimum of three new restaurants in Ontario,’ says Mike Cyr, executive director of franchising and marketing for the company.
The company has 98 outlets in Western Canada and two in Northern Ontario, and plans to open 20-25 restaurants in the province’s southern core in the next few years.
For now, it is targeting potential franchise owners in regions surrounding, but not including, Toronto.
‘Toronto is such a big market,’ says Cyr, ‘ We’d like to establish ourselves before we attempt to crack it.’
Establishing itself is exactly what the company will be forced to do in the province’s saturated casual dining market. Pizza joints are a dime a dozen in Ontario, and sit-down restaurant chains Pizza Hut and Prime Restaurant Group’s East Side Mario’s and Pat and Mario’s top the list as serious competition for Boston Pizza’s target audience. But Cyr says Boston Pizza’s 200-item menu, which includes ‘adult’ gourmet pizzas, pastas, and chicken and ribs, along with its semi-casual dining atmosphere, distinguishes it from the two concerns.
‘We occupy a niche between full-service casual dining and the lower-end of the pizza market,’ he says, adding that Boston Pizza caters to customers who want to trade up from Pizza Hut or step down from Prime`s offerings.
David Strickland, vice president of marketing and franchise development for Pizza Hut, agrees that Boston Pizza caters to a slightly different crowd, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to advise franchise owners to keep on their toes. ‘We’ll have to have our franchises buckle down,’ he says, adding that Boston Pizza will not be as much of a threat in larger towns where the bulk of the pizza business is take-out and where Pizza Hut manages to hold its own against a broad range of both take-out and eat-in establishments.
It’s the small-town operators that will have to rely on their connection to their communities if Boston Pizza moves in, he says. The company’s national marketing strategy will likely remain the same, he says. However, local franchise owners will have to sharpen their weapons as the battle heats up on their local turf.
Both companies already operate in Alberta, with Pizza Hut firmly holding down its market share, says Strickland. ‘At this point, we’re not sitting back.’
Going head to head with such stalwarts as Pizza Hut and East Side Mario’s won`t be easy, but Boston Pizza has a good-sized advertising budget on its side. Cyr says franchises pay 2.5% of their gross sales into an ad co-op. At least 75% of the co-op budget is spent on tv and radio advertising. The company reported sales of $112 million in 1995.
Lanyon Phillips & Partners, Boston Pizza’s Vancouver-based ad agency, will continue to handle the firm’s advertising as it moves into Eastern Canada, says Cyr. The pizza chain’s latest tv and radio campaign features John Ratzenberger – postal carrier Cliff on Cheers – offering advice to letter writers in the tradition of Dear Abby. Naturally, every problem prompts him to recommend Boston Pizza as the solution. The campaign includes four tv and 13 radio spots.
