Chef hits hot streak with curry and pizza concept
Future growth in UK market is targeted after supermarket listing secured
A GLASGOW-based chef has signalled his ambition to secure UK-wide listings for his range of curry flavoured pizzas after the product took its supermarket bow in Tesco.
Curry Dave’s naan bread pizzas, created by chef Dave Gannon, are believed to have been selling well in more than 100 Tesco stores north of the Border since launching in January.
Tesco is now poised to promote the product during in-store events in March and April, as well as at the Royal Highland Show in Ingliston in July.
Mr Gannon said his recent success in winning the innovation prize at the National Pizza and Pasta Awards had provided a platform for the brand before an audience of major supermarket buyers.
And he is convinced the Tesco listing “will take our brand to the next level,” noting that talks have already been held with other retailers interested in devoting shelf space to the product.
Mr Gannon believes the product has the potential to sell well UK-wide – and beyond the supermarket sector.
He said: “Our strategy for the business has always been based on volume. Ultimately, in a couple of years, we want to be listed nationally – not just with one supermarket – and be at that point where we are producing hundreds of thousands of units – or in the low 80 or 90 thousands a week.
“That’s when we would expect to make this a successful business.”
Mr Gannon said sampling will be key to his plans to promote the pizzas, which have also been available through online grocery retailer Ocado south of the Border since last summer.
Consumers are currently being given the chance to try the product when he takes his Curry Dave trailer to Tesco car parks. Tesco is currently stocking two of the four naan bread-based pizzas – tikka masala and chicken korma.
Mr Gannon noted: “We’ve got a really funky Curry Dave trailer that we can pop in the Tesco car parks to do sampling and just try and drum up a bit of interest.
“What’s key with our products is, okay it is Curry Dave naan bread pizza which are all things that spark a reaction and will get people’s attention, but ultimately we will need to make sure they taste the product. If they taste the product, they normally buy it.”
Mr Gannon, who has plied his trade in the kitchens of Glasgow venues the Ubiquitous Chip, Grassroots and Velvet Elvis, created the curry/pizza concept when he was running an Indian restaurant in a French ski resort in the early 2000s.
That prefaced a career working as a chef in food manufacturing, specialising in new product development.
With his pizza idea still on the “back burner” at this stage, he said this experience had been vitally important in developing his understanding of the process of developing an idea and ultimately getting it on to supermarket shelves.
He said: “Many people said to me along the way you shouldn’t bother, but I couldn’t really let it lie and have just gone for it. We are finally starting to see some signs that we might have something here, without getting excited.
“Getting a supermarket listing is one thing – whether the consumer picks the product up and, importantly, buys it again is another.”
Mr Gannon has handed the task of making the pizzas to Cumbernauld-based food manufacturer William Sword, which is also working with the chef on a range of chilled curry sauces for supermarkets.
An individual naan-shaped version of the pizza has also been developed as a single serving. “It is something we are looking at, but it is not our main focus at the moment,” said Mr Gannon.
“We have been approached by a national retailer to do a frozen version of the product – the volumes there are huge.
“It is always nice when someone gets in touch with you, rather than the other way around.”
‘‘ Getting a supermarket listing is one thing – whether the consumer buys it again is another