Pita Pit’s mix unwrapped
Hamish McNicol reports on growing a healthy food chain when healthy is no longer good enough.
When Canadian food chain Pita Pit opened in New Zealand a decade ago, it was the first time a store had been tried outside of North America.
But now, there were more than 100 stores across the country, 14 in Australia, more than 80 franchisees, and upwards of 1200 employees.
Pita Pit New Zealand director Chris Henderson reckoned this was no way near ‘‘peak’’ pita, however.
‘‘I think it depends on every move we make from now.
‘‘Because if we did the same thing as yesterday we get the same results, and that’s good, don’t get me wrong, but if you look around every other industry, every food offering is doing something healthy.
‘‘And that’s not good enough, healthy is not good enough now, it was good 10 years ago, but it’s now a point of entry just to open a food shop.’’
Henderson brought Pita Pit, which makes customised pita wraps, to the country in 2007.
He had turned his one-year OE into six seasons as a ski instructor in California, and a store had opened in the local ski resort.
As a fan of the food, he figured there might be a commercial opportunity in New Zealand.
Together with Duane Dalton, the teachers-turned-business partners secured the rights to Australasia and opened the first store in Auckland’s Takapuna: one they still owned.
Henderson said customers responded well, but as the Global Financial Crisis hit, the resulting credit crunch made it hard to attract franchisees until 2010.
Then, the real growth came, ‘‘rocketing’’ up by 15 to 20 stores every year.
He said this was ahead of its agreement and ahead of his own expectations as well.
‘‘We had to open a lot of stores but not 100.’’
The company appeared on the Deloitte Fast 50 rankings in 2013 and 2014, when its sales growth was above 200 per cent, and last year Henderson and Dalton were finalists in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
There had not been any store failures yet, ‘‘touch wood’’, but with 51 in Auckland, and a New Zealand target of about 150, store growth would mostly come in Australia.
Henderson said the company invested a lot of time into its franchisee support, and two years ago developed a business coaching network.
Each coach looked after about 20 outlets.
‘‘That coach needs to understand the nuances of every single franchisee.
‘‘Rather than paint a brush over every franchisee expecting every franchisee to be the same.’’
Pita Pit franchisee Grant Henderson, no relation, opened a stored in Lower Hutt in 2012 and was about to open another in Upper Hutt.
He said he and his wife looked around various business opportunities, but settled on Pita Pit because it was a new brand which he thought had potential.
Head office had been supportive, and there had been a lot of changes over the years, but he said it was incumbent on franchisees to do the hard work.
Last month, Pita Pit went freerange chicken, eggs and freefarmed bacon in its stores.
Henderson said it wanted total disclosure from field to plate, and was on a path towards sustainable packaging, which the franchise had taken the hit on, rather than the customer through increased prices.
‘‘I know consumers want it, it’s important, it’s important to us, ethically.’’
Healthy is not good enough now, it was good 10 years ago, but it's now a point of entry just to open a food shop.