There’s always a flurry of excitement when an international act announces a visit to South African shores – and news of a new international food chain is no different. The arrival of Burger King yielded hour-long queues, and it seems that the appearance of Dominos is having a similar effect on the South African psyche.

“The response has been fantastic,” says Jay Currie, CEO of Taste Holdings’ Food Division – the company responsible for bringing Dominos into South Africa. “People have been queuing out the doors and we’ve broken all sorts of internal sales targets.”

The brand has opened up six stores in a very short space of time, and will now pause over the holiday period to make sure all systems are in place, before moving ahead with growth in the new year. But how did the company decide to bring Dominos into SA? And what does it take to launch a new franchise in this country?

“We had a prior relationship with Dominos,” Jay explains.  “They looked at acquiring Scooters in early 2000s to get a footprint in SA. We knew that Pizza Hut was coming so we reached out to Dominos.” Taste Holdings felt it would be better to own one of the bigger international pizza brands than compete with them, he says.

“We signed the documents and by the end of the week we were flying to Ann Arbour to negotiate our relationship with them.”

Delivering over 1 million pizzas daily – and one of the fastest growing franchises in its market – Dominos is certainly a large international player. So what’s the key to their success?

Dominos Pizza

“They’ve got a great formula, a good brand, and they take tremendous care of it. It’s also a very good product – certainly the best middle market pizza in my experience. And they’ve got great systems in place, that they’ve fine-tuned over the past 50 years.”

Most important though, says Jay, is the brand’s culture, which is truly service-focused. In SA, they’ve launched the most aggressive delivery promise: they offer free delivery in under 30 minutes, with branded motorbikes helping them to stick to this promise even in heavy traffic.

So how will the South African branch of Dominos differ from the international version?

“We spent three months understanding SA customers and selected from a range of options from there. After doing our research we found it was important to include a good barbecue flavour, and also honey mustard and chicken tikka pizzas.” There are no plans at present to accommodate South Africa’s current craze: banting.

Dominos Pizza

“Pizza is an indulgence and a treat, and has a place in a balanced lifestyle, but at this stage no plans to produce a banting pizza. For now we’d like to stay true to core offering.”

The franchise, which is takeaway only, aims to keep walk-in customers entertained while they wait with a pizza theatre aspect – customers can watch the handmade bases being tossed – something that’s proved particularly popular with the kids, along with the chalkboard walls.

The brand also tries to create value for each kind of customer – with specials for one, two, or a whole family.

Existing Scooters and St Elmos branches are set to be converted and the plan, says Jay, is to have over 100 branches open by end of their next financial year in Feb 2016.

“We couldn’t be more excited and are looking forward to bringing a Dominos to your neighbourhood in the new year.”

Click here for a full list of Dominos locations.