Pizza Pizza facts for kids
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Corporate headquarters in Toronto
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| Private, with publicly traded royalty income fund | |
| Traded as | TSX: PZA |
| Industry |
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| Genre | Pizzeria |
| Founded | December 31, 1967 |
| Founder | Michael Overs |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Area served
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Key people
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Paul Goddard (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Subsidiaries | Pizza 73 |
Pizza Pizza Ltd. is a well-known Canadian fast-food chain that mainly sells pizza. Its main office is in Toronto, Ontario. You can find their restaurants mostly in Ontario, but also in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and western Canada. In western Canada, many locations are run by their sister company, Pizza 73. Pizza Pizza has more than 500 restaurants, including many smaller spots like those in malls or schools.
Contents
History of Pizza Pizza
Pizza Pizza was started by Michael Overs. He opened the very first restaurant on December 31, 1967. This first store was in Toronto, at the corner of Wellesley and Parliament streets. Michael Overs owned the entire chain until he passed away in 2010.
Growing Across Canada
The company grew quickly in the Toronto area during the 1970s. Then, it expanded throughout the rest of Ontario in the 1980s and 1990s.
Pizza Pizza first tried to open restaurants in Quebec in the mid-1980s. However, they closed those locations after a few years. They returned to Quebec in March 2007, starting in Gatineau. Later in 2007, they opened more stores in the Montreal area.
The chain started to expand a lot outside of Ontario in the 2000s. In 2005, when they first offered shares to the public, they announced plans to grow in western Canada. This led to them buying the Alberta-based company Pizza 73 in June 2007.
In October 2006, Pizza Pizza also announced they would expand more in Quebec. They even sponsored the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. In 2009, they opened stores in the British Columbia Lower Mainland, but these later closed. Pizza 73 already had a location in Prince George. Soon after, Pizza Pizza added locations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The chain returned to Vancouver in 2018. Pizza Pizza opened its first store in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in June 2010. The first New Brunswick location opened in Dieppe in late 2021.
In December 2021, Pizza Pizza Limited shared that they were looking to expand into Mexico.
How Pizza Pizza Markets Itself
Pizza Pizza is very well known for its phone number, which ends in 1111. The company says that using a single phone number for all orders early on helped them grow across Ontario. They also heavily promoted this easy-to-remember, rhyming phone number.
For most cities, a central local number is used. If it becomes a long-distance call, they use a different local number. In other cities, they try to get local phone numbers that also end with "11-11." This matches the jingle they use in their radio ads. Pizza Pizza has even registered "967–1111" and similar numbers as trademarks.
Slogans and Trademarks
Another pizza chain, Little Caesars, uses the slogan "Pizza! Pizza!" in the United States. However, they do not use this slogan in Canada. This is because Pizza Pizza has already registered a similar slogan as a trademark in Canada. Instead, Little Caesars uses other two-word slogans like "Two Pizzas!", "Hot 'N' Ready!", "Delivery! Delivery!", or "Quality! Quality!" in Canada.
Pizza Pizza currently holds the trademark for:
- Chicken Chicken
Technology at Pizza Pizza
In 2011, Pizza Pizza won a Webby Award for having the Best Mobile Shopping App. This award recognized how good their app was for ordering food on a phone.
See also
- List of Canadian restaurant chains
- List of Canadian pizza chains
