Canadian master franchisors of U.S. pizza giant Papa Murphy’s are set to add three stores later this month to their current 15 locations and expect that within five years there will be 80 such pizza stores across Canada.
The new stores will be in Surrey, Metro Edmonton and Winnipeg.
“We see ourselves at 30 stores within the next year or year and a half,” Papa M Pizza Canada owner Chuck van der Lee told Business in Vancouver Friday.
His confidence in his growth plans stem partly from the fact that Papa Murphy’s product differs from most pizza sellers.
Instead of selling ready-cooked pizza, Papa Murphy’s sells freshly made pizzas that customers then take to bake at home. Van der Lee believes that this sector is set to boom.
His company began opening in 2007, when van der Lee was president of Rogers Retail and based in Richmond.
He left Rogers in 2009 to devote his time to building Papa Murphy’s in Canada. So far, he and partners have invested about $4 million.
They opened eight stores and then bought seven stores that Vancouver, Washington-based parent Papa Murphy’s International opened on its own in Canada.
“All stores going forward are going to be franchised, including the three that we’re opening up in September,” he said.
