Pezzo pizza Malaysia has been so successful in Sarawak it will now expand into neighbouring Sabah and enter the market in peninsular Malaysia.

Borneo Oil, which owns the SugarBun restaurant chain, is the master licensee for the Singaporean chain in east Malaysia through its wholly owned unit SB Supply Logistics.

Executive director Raymond Teo Kiew Leong says the pizza business is expanding faster than anticipated. There are 42 franchised Pezzo outlets in Sarawak, more than half of them in Kuching, and two outlets in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

SB Supply Logistics secured a 10-year master franchise for Pezzo in November 2014, which is renewable for another 10 years.

Teo says the Pezzo outlets are generating average monthly sales of RM2 million (US$491,310), with most outlets being run by SugarBun, a Sarawak fast-food chain with about 80 franchised restaurants, mainly in Sarawak but also Bangladesh, Brunei, China and even Australia.

Twenty Pezzo kiosks are planned for Sabah this year, says Teo, and three more outlets are being set up Sabah, one outside the capital.
Within the next two months, Pezzo will arrive on the peninsula, in the Da Men shopping mall in USJ Petaling Jaya. The company plans to expand on the mainland, with a focus on the states such as Pahang and Trengganu.

Teo says the business is attractive for franchisees because of its low capital outlet, simple procedures and fast returns.

To cope with Pezzo’s fast expansion and SugarBun’s growth, Borneo Oil is investing in a new RM5-million central food-processing plant in Kuching.