Norwegian holding company Orkla is to acquire a 75% stake in Dutch pizza chain New York Pizza. The company has its own branches in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and also supplies pizza dough to other companies.
Franchise model
The listed food holding company Orkla has reached an agreement on the purchase of 75% of the shares of New York Pizza, the second largest pizza chain in the Netherlands, with 11.5 million pizzas and a turnover of 54.7 million euros in 2020. The restaurant chain has 229 branches in the Netherlands, where it is the number two after Domino’s. At the end of last year, the chain opened its first Belgian branch, in Leuven. This year, five branches should be added. The pizza company also has two restaurants in the German city of Cologne.
An important part of the company is pizza dough producer Euro Pizza Products, which sells pizza dough and other pizza components to companies in 18 European countries. Its biggest customer is pizza chain Kotipizza, the market leader in Finland and also owned by Orkla. Both companies can strengthen each other by working more closely together, the holding company believes.
“New York Pizza is a well-run company with competent management and a well-functioning franchise model. The acquisition of New York Pizza is aligned with Orkla’s strategic ambition of growing in the Out-of-Home segment, which has higher growth than the traditional grocery channel,” said Orkla’s top executive Jaan Ivar Semlitsch.
