EasyJet founder set to deliver easyPizza service

EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou unveiled his latest venture today – a delivery-only pizza service.

The entrepreneur said his 16th “easy” venture had come about after a “failure to understand” the pizza market by prime movers Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza.

To mark the launch of his easyPizza franchise in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire in England, he was on hand for its first order.

Mr Haji-Ioannou said: “Domino’s and Pizza Hut are substantial businesses but they have failed to understand they have a very inefficient business model.”

Apart from “peak time at around 8pm,” these companies “sit idle for the rest of the time,” he said.

He explained it was this idle time that his “variable pricing” strategy was aiming to capitalise on by “smoothing demand and lowering prices”.

The latest addition to the easyGroup empire is also based on the same cost-cutting principles that enabled the first one, easyJet, to thrive.

Running costs will be cut by not catering for “walk-up” trade, riding the need for renting high street addresses.

Orders made in advance will also be cheaper, the easyPizza boss explained.

There have already been a dozen inquiries about purchasing future easyPizza franchises, he said.

Mr Haji-Ioannou, who launched easyBus in Milton Keynes earlier this year, added: “We’re up to 16 separate ventures and we have plans for a couple more - the hotel and cruise liner are perhaps the most notable.”