Q: What is your company’s experience like in China?
A: It a long and painful journey. But if you persist enough at the end you will certain to bear some fruits.

At first we found a location in the center of downtown Shanghai. It takes us about 8 months to get all the licenses. You have to register with the Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce to get the business license, you have to apply for the hygienic license, and you have to prove that your restaurant is a safe place to eat. And two months after we go through all this and decorated our store, the property owner defaulted on the lease contract, so we have to find another location in Putuo district, which is also in downtown, but at its edge. We had very good business from the beginning, but it also attracted the attention of a Chinese. He soon opened a pizza shop right beside our shop and sold pizza at 12 yuan a piece, the same size of which we sold at 40 yuan. You are sure to lose money to sell pizza at such a low price, so we have to change place to avoid such unfair competition. Not long after we moved, the Chinese shop closed door, since they can never make money and meet customers’ expectation on food quality while at such a miserable price.

Then we found our current business premise. We flourished on it, and now, we bought out our neighbour storefront and enlarged our store greatly. You could see our booming business from the long queues outside.

Q: What makes your current business so prosperous?
A: Opening a restaurant in China is much different from opening an industrial products factory in China. The former needs far more field experience and localization than the latter. After all, restaurant industry is a much more personal experience-oriented business. You have to go deep into every small details. Our current success is based on our three-year-long hard-earned Chinese experience. Nobody can take it from us, because it is deeply ingrained in our ways of doing business and our minds. No matter how many China introduction books you have read, how many self-claimed China hands you have consulted, nothing can match years’ on-site experience, especially for locally-directed service industry.

Q: From your experience what is the best way to successfully conduct a pizza business in China?
A: At the beginning you have to position your customer as precisely as possible. For Western fast food business in China, 30 to 50 yuan per person is within limits, not any more. You can not only count on expats in China as your main consumer base. You have to cater to middle-to-high class Chinese citizens.

With the price positioning comes the site-choosing. If you are in the downtown of the downtown, you face not only prohibitive rentals, you are also have fewer community customers around, the reason of which is the central downtown are often shopping centers, a bit far from living quarters. Our current premise is a good choice. It is at the edge of downtown, two-minutes from metroline and bus station, very close to shopping malls, with middle schools and living blocks around, and at the corner of streets.

At the same time, you have to follow the market trends very closely. In China, Pizza Hut is the company which introduced pizza to Chinese in 1999. Before that, pizza is unheard of to most Chinese. And through its expansion Pizza Hut also established the Chinese experience with pizza. Nearly all Chinese now think if the pizza taste is similar or close to the one from Pizza Hut, then it is genuine Western pizza. So have to go the American way to make pizza.

All the while you shall participate in localization. The majority of Chinese people like spicy foods, so we add many hot elements to our pizzas, and they are well liked by Chinese.

A knack for our readers: You’d better hire a foreign face in your pizza shop, which gives your restaurant a very authentic and Western flavor. And whenever I am convenient I will sit near the shop window myself, to supervise, also to attract Chinese.

Q: What is the difference between Western pizza business and Chinese pizza business?
A: The most distinct feature of the Chinese pizza business is, the major part of Chinese eat pizza in the storefront, not the take-out or delivery style. So you have to rent a much larger shop, decorate it in the western ways. That is because for most Chinese it is still a luxury to eat in a Western restaurant, even if it’s a pizza store. When they have pizza it is a way for them to show off, so they want many people to see them. And another reason is, for most Chinese, having food with somebody is a common way of socializing. So having a bright, clean, spacious, relaxed, and exotic place to offer to your Chinese customer is a proved way to improve your business.

Q: How big is the China pizza market, and what is your company’s China plan?
A: China is the fastest growing market for casual dining all over the world, and pizza has become an important part of culture and social life in China.  I can not give accurate figures about how big the market is, but it is certainly a huge one.

China restaurant industry is one of several industries not to be hurt by the current financial crisis. China is also one of the most important markets outside of Europe for La Boite a Pizza. We will open many new pizzerias in China soon, by way of both direct operation and franchising.