Pizza chain tops off 25 years

● Pizza group Col’Cacchio celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, having started with one store on the foreshore in Cape Town before expanding into a successful group of 35 franchised outlets nationwide.

But co-founder and MD Michael Terespolsky said the current times are the worst the chain has experienced.

“In the almost 26 years, without a shadow of a doubt, these are the toughest of times,” said Terespolsky. “You can absolutely feel it. Competition in the market is at an all-time high, it’s very fierce . . . everybody is fighting for a share of the wallet.

“We’re competing with supermarkets, which are now selling fresh pizzas and Italian food. They’ve got hot counters people are going to.”

Burger joints

Shoprite Checkers, for example, has a burger counter in the Mall of Africa in northern Johannesburg where people queue “from dawn till dusk”, and there are five other burger brands in the mall.

“And it’s like that wherever you go. Who’s our competition? When you walk out of your house and decide to spend your money with somebody else rather than me, that’s my competition.

“And supermarkets are coming on board, all manner of competitors are out there. It’s tough. It’s a challenge. I believe that the big brands and the people that stay current will survive.”

Terespolsky said Col’Cacchio has always been good at spotting and creating trends. “I still believe people will eat out, maybe less often, and I think they will go to the places that are their favourite places . . . and where they feel they get value. I think those are the places that will survive the storm. And it is a storm.”

The business started when Terespolsky and Kinga Baranowska — who later became his wife — left Johannesburg to start a pizza business in Cape Town. The opening night was a “disaster”, with a number of burnt pizzas, but many of that night’s customers came back and continue to return.

Various big food groups have approached them to buy a stake or buy it out, “but from a timing perspective it’s been out”, Terespolsky said. “It’s not that we wouldn’t ever. I think if we met the right people at the right time and saw value for the brand, we would consider it.”