IBISWorld’s Pizza Restaurants and Takeaway in Australia industry report underlies much of the focus at Crust Gourmet Pizza and Eagle Boys.

Healthier and more gourmet offerings are at the core of the Crust Gourmet Pizza brand, and while product innovation is no doubt high on the agenda at Eagle Boys, the pizza chain has also devoted much of its time to technological development of late. 

CRUST GOURMET PIZZA

The Crust brand was established in 2001 in response to customers’ increased desire for healthier and more gourmet pizza varieties, and the Retail Food Group (RFG) brand is constantly revising its menu to ensure its offering appeals to the increasingly savvy customer.   

“We firmly believe that our product quality is unparalleled in the gourmet pizza sector. We use the finest ingredients to create unique flavour combinations, and we are always ahead of our competitors when it comes to food trends,” says managing director, Michael Rose.

“Crust recently launched our annual new menu, featuring a delicious new range of pizzas, sides and desserts,” he adds.  

The new menu stays true to the brand’s foundations – the pizzas are characterised by their gourmet toppings such as chilli crab, sangria duck ragu and Vietnamese chilli chicken, meanwhile the herb bread, which is served with harissa infused hummus and Kalamata olives, offers a new take on the traditional side.

“Health has always been a consideration for Crust, and as such we were the first pizza brand to market with a Healthier Choice range and wholemeal bases,” adds Rose.

The Healthier Choice Pizzas range is representative of Crust’s desire to provide a less indulgent dining option that doesn’t compromise on taste, and it includes four varieties – Chicken Tikka, Spiced Pumpkin, Bruschetta and Chicken Avocado, and its menu also includes a number of healthy sides, including  two news salads – radicchio and roast beetroot.

Through its multi-levelled Crust Mobile Pizza Bar the brand has embraced a whole new space this year – events – and it operates as a pop-up version of a bricks-and-mortar store.

Four pizza ovens churn out fresh pizza on the bottom level, and a communal area complete with dining tables and a wrap around bar exists upstairs.

The concept was unveiled at the Formula One in Melbourne in March, and also appeared at the BWM Sydney Carnival races in Randwick.

“The Crust Mobile Pizza Bar has a full schedule of events throughout the year and forms a big part of our campaign to raise brand awareness by sharing our delicious pizza with the people,” Rose explains.

“We will continue our strong experiential campaigns through the Crust Mobile Pizza Bar to generate word of mouth about our brand.”

Crust has developed a number of online ordering functions, and digital innovation will remain a key focus for the brand both this year and well into the future.

“Digital ordering platforms are a key focus for convenience, and we continue to drive online ordering with our full suite of digital platforms, including our website and iOS and Android applications.  

“We will [continue to] enhance our digital platforms to stay up to date with consumer preferences,” he adds.

EAGLE BOYS

Eagle Boys’ marketing manager, Kate Pettiford agrees with the IBISWorld report in that the pizza industry has evolved significantly over the past five, and even 10 years.

“There’s just such a vast range of what people are looking for in a pizza company now. It used to be very different in that customers simply came in and got their meal deal and left,” she says. 

The customer is at the forefront of all that the Australian born and bred business does, and it’s devoted much of its time and effort around customer insights of late.

“We’ve been pulling all of our customer data from the last five years in an effort to really understand who our loyal customers are, where they come from and what they buy from us. We’ve brought together a number of different data sets that sit within the business and created a single customer view,” she explains.

Pettiford says the process has proven incredibly effective in terms of customer engagement as it enables Eagle Boys to communicate with its customers on a more personal level.   

“We’re able to really segment down our messaging and it doesn’t waste people’s time – they know that when they get a message or marketing material for us it’s going to be highly relevant to what they’re interested in.

“It’s all about personalisation – you should know who your customers are and you should be able to speak to them directly,” she adds.

Convenience of ordering is also a focus for the brand, and Eagle Boys has recently employed a smartphone developer to fine tune its ordering app, which was introduced in 2012.

“His role is to constantly optimise the app and make it easier and simpler for people to use,” says Pettiford.

“Ideally we’d like to get to the point where it’s only a couple of clicks and the order is through, which really speaks to the busy customers.”

New product development is also on Eagle Boys’ agenda, and Pettiford stresses it’s not just about introducing brand new offerings.

“We [also] want to be innovating how we are making our existing products – for example introducing new bases and looking at how we can make our pizzas healthier without sacrificing taste,” she explains.

Pettiford says rolling out Eagle Boys brand refresh, which was unveiled last November and focuses on the local community, is also in the spotlight.  

“We won’t be doing any major national campaigns, it’s all about being part of our local community, which is the heritage of Eagle Boys – it’s where we started. Getting back to being part of the Aussie community is a big focus for us.”