As England’s footballers aim to make it to the knock-out stage at the Euros, thousands of Domino’s Pizza workers are facing a test of their own.
The UK’s biggest pizza chain sells as many as 31 pizzas a second during an England match, and it wants to keep up its average delivery time of 24 minutes.
The bloke stretching dough behind the counter at the Golders Green branch in North London appears in good shape for the challenge.
Addicted to work: Domino’s chief executive Andrew Rennie on his undercover mission working as a chef at one of his outlets
With grey hair and a sportsman’s freckled skin, he’s a bit older than the average chef at the chain. But, dressed in a Domino’s chef’s outfit from head to toe and wearing Nike trainers, Andrew Rennie certainly looks the part.
He happily takes an order from a builder who’s strolled in off the street. No-one would guess that it’s his first time in this branch of Domino’s – or indeed that he is the boss of the £1.3billion company, with more than 1,300 outlets across the UK and Ireland.
‘Football and pizza just go so well together,’ grins the modest chief executive.
He is not sporting his usual expensive watch, but says he does wears his pizza-making uniform most days.
He doesn’t own a car but loves his Kawasaki motorbike, though he won’t be trying deliveries on it.
He says: ‘This is our busiest time of year and we’ve got to get it right.’
Andrew Rennie’s five tips for the top
Domino’s hung on to its marketing budget at the start of the year so it could embark on a splurge this summer. It’s also relaunching its ‘ultimate spicy sausage’ pizza, which was hugely popular during the last World Cup.
Investors hope this tournament will help Domino’s shares rebound. At £3.19, they are a long way off their high of £4.59 in 2021.
In Rennie, who took over as FTSE 250-listed Domino’s UK & Ireland boss in August, it has an experienced pair of hands.
He has spent more than 20 years aggressively growing this pizza empire worldwide, including running the European business from 2014 to 2020.
Now the 56-year-old is raring to get more Pepperoni Passions and Twisted Dough Balls into Britons’ bellies.
The firm accounts for more than three quarters of branded pizza sales in the UK, he says, but adds: ‘We’ve got over 1,330 stores across the UK and Ireland, but I want to get us to 2,000 by 2032.’
It’s a long way from the single British branch in Luton in 1985, when the North American franchise first expanded overseas.
He’s moving into smaller towns and villages, now cities are saturated. But is there antipathy to a brash Domino’s landing in the shires?
‘If they don’t like us, they’re not doing a very good job of showing it – they’re buying an awful lot of pizza. A lot of those villages have very few brands so we’ve become quite the place to go.’
He too grew up in a part of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales with a population of just 6,000.
Rennie enlisted in the army at 15. After a decade in fatigues, he decided to open a Domino’s – then a fairly small pizza franchise in Australia – in his tiny hometown.
‘Head office pointed out the average store had a 50,000 population around it, and mine had 10 per cent of that, and would fail.
But I got it open and became obsessed with service. If a pizza was late, or we made a mistake, I’d go to people’s houses, offer them free pizza, free Coke, beg them to return. I knew 350 of my customers’ names and addresses off by heart, and I’d personally handle their pizza.’
Furrowing his brow, apparently still upset by it, Rennie reels off the address and concerns of a Mr Grey, who 30 years ago complained of a stingy amount of jalapeno on his pizza.
To say this chief executive is obsessed with customer service is an understatement.
‘I wouldn’t sleep if I lost a customer. I was so driven that from our tiny store, smaller than most home kitchens, we became the number one store in Australia.’
He then built a 30-strong Domino’s franchise over a decade, before being approached to sell up in exchange for a shareholding in Domino’s Australia business. When it listed in Sydney and the company bought out the Domino’s franchise for France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Rennie moved to Paris.
‘I was the only one who could count to ten in French, so I was sent to run France in 2006.;
Over five years, the father-of-three tripled the size of the French business.
Shift: Domino’s is moving into smaller towns and villages, now cities are saturated
After three years back Down Under running Domino’s in Australia and New Zealand, Rennie returned to the Continent to run the European division, growing Domino’s in Germany to 1,200 branches. Four years ago, he retired – having made enough to never work again – to live on his farm in Australia.
He was 52 and his ‘retirement’ was short lived. It never involved any leisure, as in that time Rennie set up 25 businesses, including a cheesecake maker, car wash, whisky distillery and cattle farm, but even that wasn’t enough.
When his ex-wife moved to London with their youngest son, he moved to England too.
He says: ‘Then Domino’s Pizza Group came knocking on the door and I couldn’t not come out of retirement.’
Now Rennie’s laser-sharp focus is directed at UK and Irish growth. Top of his list is a Domino’s loyalty scheme: ‘We’ve 30 million active customers in our database, who buy on average 4.3 times a year. My wish is to get them to five.’
More ambitiously, he’s scrawled a secretive shopping list, looking to snap up a smaller rival: ‘A brand with 50 or 80 outlets, with all the start-up mistakes already done.’
He is looking for a brand Britons want to munch on in the daytime, as 90 per cent of Domino’s pizzas are scoffed in the evenings.
The chief executive is always thinking of the future. He talks of drones and driverless deliveries being ‘five or so years away’, conceding: ‘The rarest asset on earth now is human beings, people to deliver the products.
For now, we’re focused on electric bicycles: better for the environment, and much faster for our customers.’
There’s a pause as Rennie’s latest creation emerges from the oven. He has sandwiched some chocolate chip cookies, butter and cinnamon into pizza dough to create a new dessert. I was sceptical, but demolished it then licked the box clean.
Will Domino’s be delivering this to any party as a pre-election boost?
‘This business is nearly 40 years old and has done well whoever’s in charge,’ the Aussie replies. ‘I’ve been through elections in France, Australia, Germany. We just say vote for pizza.’
With that, Rennie takes me behind the counter to teach me the secrets behind the perfect Domino’s pizza. It’s harder than it looks. I’m gently told my effort would not pass muster – dodgy crust,.
As I leave, Rennie is pinching out another ball of dough.
He says with a shrug: ‘Unfortunately, I’m addicted to work. But I’m fortunate in that I can be here because I want to.’
And with that, Rennie grabs another handful of pepperoni and gets back to his pizza.
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