Monday, August 29, 2005
US pizza chain giant Little Caesars is to open eight stores in Ireland and has plans to increase that to 45 over the next few years. The company has signed a ten year deal with Doughmaster to support Little Caesars franchisees in Ireland.
Dublin based Doughmaster will open the first eight stores and operate them as its own over the next 18 months. Afterwards it will pursue franchisees.
Little Caesars was founded in Michigan in 1959. The firm has franchised over 3,000 restaurants in the USA and has revenues of over $1bn.
Little Caesars adds to a highly expansive Irish pizza market – existing players include Apache, Domino’s, Godfathers, Fourstarpizza and Pizza Hut. The four largest operators (those mentioned excluding Pizza Hut) now have over 90 outlets in Ireland in total. Apache remains the largest company in store count with 29 outlets.