Domino’s grabs a slice of Hanoi’s pizza market

Vice president of Domino’s in the Asia Pacific region Steve Pizziol

How is Domino's doing globally and locally in Vietnam?

We have seen enormous growth momentum globally, especially from international operations which have been the accelerant for growth in the past 10 years. Asia Pacific was among one of the fastest growing regions in international. This year, we have surpassed the 2,500th store mark, which is another significant achievement. With Asia-Pacific region on a growth trajectory, there are solid plans in motion to expand further into region, building out existing markets as well as developing green field sites.

Vietnam has been doing extremely well since we launched the market in November 2010, consistently achieving year-on-year double digit growth. Vietnam is one of the markets with the highest number of order counts in Asia, which means we are attracting a lot of customers every day. We are confident that with the successful grand opening of Hanoi, we will be able to deliver our hot and fresh pizza to even more consumers in Vietnam. This market simply demonstrated our brand’s strength and relevancy to consumers in developing countries and it is in this regard that they are one of our most important markets.

In terms of market potential, Vietnam is a unique country in the Asia Pacific region with a large proportion of young population, over 50 per cent of the country’s population under 39, which are typical Domino’s target customers.  With the country’s rising middle-class and increase of income per capita across the board, we look forward to firming up our expansion plans in order to enable the brand to ride the growth wave in this highly important market.

Vietnam’s fast-food market is getting crowded with more local and international players coming in. What is your take on this?

Vietnam is a market with strong and robust economic growth and with tremendous opportunity for pizza. The economic growth has attracted a lot of foreign investments which brings in a lot of consumers with western taste. At the same time, as average household income increases in this country, people living in the six major cities, especially Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi has become more affordable for pizza and international food brands. We are very positive on the future of our business in Vietnam. Since our entry in 2010 providing consumers with greater variety of choice, our brand has been well-received by local consumers and quickly becoming one of the biggest pizza players in the market, which makes our outlook for Vietnam even more positive.

How does Domino’s differentiate itself from other pizza companies and fast-food chains?

Since its inception, Domino’s has been a byword for quality and quick service. All our pizzas are freshly handmade upon order, using only 100 per cent mozzarella cheese from New Zealand, topped with freshest ingredients on our signature hand-tossed crust. When you have a pizza delivered, you want to know two things, how good it is and how long it will take to arrive. Domino’s guarantees both these things and this has been the backbone of Domino’s success. We are committed to delivering the best quality services and will continue to develop new ways to improve our services for our customers.

Our customer base continues to grow and with more and more customers going online, we recognised the benefits of moving forward with technology and we have integrated our online platform into our order and delivery system to provide added convenience to our customers. This speeds up the ordering process as customers are able to do everything online at the Domino’s website, from placing their orders to making payments and tracking the status of the pizza. In Vietnam, in view of the surging Internet and mobile population, we have launched our Online Ordering platform since the first day we operated in this country, allowing Vietnamese customers to order from Domino’s anytime, anywhere, any time at their convenience.

Domino's is claimed as the No.1 pizza delivery company in the world. While not many Vietnamese have the habit of delivery, have you changed yourself to match the local consumer behaviour?

As mentioned before, the country’s middle class is rising with a busier and career-oriented lifestyle as seen in major cities, pizza delivery is soon becoming very relevant to local consumers. In fact, delivery contributed to about 40 per cent of our sales and this shows that Vietnamese love pizza delivery. Our belief is to meet the changing needs of customers in different regions and different life stage.