News

Telepizza launches 10-year, 200-unit global expansion in Teheran

December 2, 2016

One of the world's largest non-U.S.-based pizza brands, Telepizza, is launching a 10-year growth plan that will grow the chain 200 stores in 10 years, according to a news release. The new initiative was announced in the run-up to the opening of Telepizza's first Iranian location. The brand has more than 1,300 locations on four continents and annually racks up sales totaling nearly $540 million. 

The brand will open in Iran's capital city of Teheran in March next year, as part of a strategic master franchise alliance with Momenin Investment Group, which plans to open 20 more locations worldwide over each of the next 10 years. That growth, according to a news release, represents a $107 million investment in that same span of time. Following the March opening in Teheran, Telepizza will also open seven other Iranian locations before the end of 2017. 

"We are very satisfied to have found a travel companion like Momenin Investment Group to begin our venture in Iran, which promises to be very interesting. We will be the first European chain in the QSR segment to set up in this country, catering to the customers' demand that went unmet up to this point," said Telepizza International Chairman Giorgio Minardi, in the release.

The chain recently opened locations in the U.K., Malta and Saudi Arabia. In total, the brand intends to open 80 stores in the U.K. over the next 10 years with Karali Ventures Limited. It aims to develop a business plan for 300 new locations in 10 years through collaboration with 20 franchisees.

In Malta the chain has partnered with Joseph P. Attard to open a store in the first quarter of next year, with three more in the next three years. And in Saudi Arabia three stores recently opened in the capital city of Riyadh. The chain said those are the first of 100 locations expected to open there in the next 10 years. 

Currently the brand has 456 company-owned and 886 franchisees and master franchises in 15 countries, along with manufacturing facilities in six countries and master franchise factories in six additional territories.