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  |  Nairobi Business Monthly   February

BY AAMERA JIWAJI

It isn’t a pizza base without toppings. Nor do

you have to be naked to eat one. But Naked

Pizza does require some introduction to the

Kenyan market.

Started as an international pizza franchise in

New Orleans, Naked Pizza is developed on the

idea that people want to eat healthy but are not

willing to sacrifice a ordability, convenience

or taste to do so. So it is an all natural, reduced

calorie, probiotic pizza that incorporates ten

grains into its base and uses fewer processed

ingredients and nothing artificial.

But like an ordinary pizza, it is round, comes

in a square box and the business model is funda-

mentally unchanged.

What is di erent however is that the stereo-

type of a pizza as a high calorie product that

promotes lifestyle diseases has been tweaked.

And Naked Pizza isn’t the first company to

embrace such a concept. It is one in a long line

of international businesses responding to an

increasing consumer consciousness that ques-

tions how and and under what conditions a

product is made - whether it relates to child

labour in an Asian country, the use of fair trade

in procuring co ee beans, or as in the case

of Naked Pizza, the health implications of a

particular ingredient.

The other thing that is di erent about Naked

Pizza as an international brand is that while the

fast food business model (carry out and deliv-

ery, or dining with no delivery) is unchanged,

Naked Pizza was the first to receive international

acclaim for its flexibility when entering new

markets.

When it opened its first international location

in Dubai, it was under the name N_K_D Pizza,

out of respect for the culture, acknowledging

that for a franchise to succeed in a local market

it may need to change its products or services,

adjust how it advertises, make adaptations to

the equipment it uses or even change the name

of its business.

And so its arrival in a country where numer-

ous international franchises have imposed a

globally successful business model only to find

that it does not work, sets it apart from other

brands.

Established burger franchise McDonalds

embraced the same flexibility in naming prac-

tice last month when it rebranded its Australian

outlets to Macca’s, the nickname that the locals

Companies&Industries

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KFC - America

Galitos - South Africa

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Steers - South Africa

The Naked truthabout the

 franchise

BUSINESS MODELS

Ritesh Doshi, co-owner of

the Nairobi franchise of

Naked Pizza

The first outlet is in

Westlands and they plan

to have three outlets in

Nairobi before the end of

the year.

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February  Nairobi Business Monthly   | 

referred to it by.

The journey of Naked Pizza’s arrival in Kenya

did not require any adjustments to its brand

name but local franchise owners Ritesh Doshiand his wife Sapna Shah have started tweaking

the international product to better suit the needs

of the local market, without compromising on

the brand promise.

“People here across racial, religious, income

spectrum love chillies so we’re selling a lot of

chillies whereas in the US and Dubai, chillies

are charged as a separate topping,” said Ritesh.

For the Nairobi couple, both of whom come

from a strong financial background (Ritesh

trained and worked with HSBC as an invest-

ment banker and Sapna is a portfolio manager

for the private equity Ackerman fund), this is

their first venture into business.

“I have been looking for an opportunity to do

something on my own,” said Ritesh. “Having

been away from Kenya for the last 12 years,

having seen the change in consumer trends and

what is going on in the economy, my wife and I

said: Do we want to watch this from the outside

or do we want to be part of the development of

the economy at home?”

The answer was clear, and so while still work-

ing abroad, they started looking at opportunities

in the food space. Some international franchises

were not interested in the African market; the

economics of others didn’t make sense to Ritesh

and Sapna but in May 2011, they came across theNaked Pizza brand. Some research and a phone

call later, Ritesh spoke to one of the founders

and outlined his idea.

“I told him that I want to do this in Kenya.

And I said in Africa most people want to start

in Johannesburg or Cape Town or Lagos, but

if we’re going to do this it’s got to be in Kenya

because Kenya is at the cutting edge of the food

scene and the technology scene.”

His pitch was a success, and in August 2011,

when he and his wife conducted a recce of the

Nairobi food scene and found a gap that Naked

Pizza could fill, the decision was made.

“There are a lot of good brands here, but if

I am sitting at home watching TV there is no

o ering in the market that would appeal to a

consumer such as myself. And I am a typical

Kenyan consumer. A middle class consumer

that wants convenience, a cool brand, and who

is health conscious. Not an old, tired brand that

doesn’t change with consumer dynamics.”

That September, they finalised discussions

and two months later, Ritesh and Sapna secured

the franchise rights for Naked Pizza in East and

central Africa with an informal understanding

for the rest of Africa. In mid November 2012, they

opened their first outlet in Nairobi in Westlands

and plan to open two more by the end of 2013.

The total expected investment for the three

stores was over $1 million with the first West-

lands outlet - serving as a central dough produc-

tion area - requiring the highest share.

While the strong emphasis on quality and all

natural ingredients makes Naked Pizza margin-

ally more expensive than other pizza in Kenya’s

fast food space, Ritesh says price will not be a

determining factor in securing a customer base

- indicating a move towards a more discern-

ing and socially mature Kenyan consumer who

places service and quality above price.

The pizza delivery business globally is built

on residential business, and this is also true

for Naked Pizza Kenya. For the outlet to work, it

needs access to 55,000 residential households

within a 50 minute delivery radius, hence the

selection of Westlands - an area that has devel-

oped a reputation for being the food district of

the capital.

The growing commercial influence of West-

lands also serves as a hub to various a  uent

residential neigbourhoods. With opening hours

from 11 am to 11 pm, Naked Pizza targets the

residential crowd, people who want a pizza

dinner before a night of clubbing, and even

busy professionals who return home late.In accordance with the international fran-

chise model, the franchisee is 100% responsible

for local investments and pays the franchisor

between 4% to 12% of its annual revenue as a

fee for using the brand and any inputs.

“We’re paying for the know-how in terms of

the pizza business, but we are also paying for

the recipes and continued marketing, manage-

ment and training support,” said Ritesh and with

Naked Pizza having developed an all natural

pizza base made of ten di erent oats and grains,

which took six years to formulate, he and Sapna

considered it a worthwhile business agreement.

The Kenyan franchise is 100% local with him

and his wife owning 85% of the business, and

the remaining 15% being controlled by family

members who are strategic investors from the

Kenyan food industry.

Two months down the line, the response from

the market has been encouraging and through a

marketing campaign based on social media and

word of mouth, Naked Pizza Kenya has built a

strong customer base among Nairobi’s young

middle class consumers.