After establishing itself as one of the leading players in India?s Rs 450 crore pizza market, American restaurant chain Pizza Hut, part of Yum! Restaurants India, is now focusing on delivery with its sub-brand Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD). The PHD concept has been in international markets for a long time now and in the last couple of years it has been introduced successfully in markets such as Saudi Arabia, Korea , Taiwan, Japan and Lebanon. In an interview with Rohit Nautiyal of FE, Ashok Bajpai, general manager, PHD, shares the significance of a sub-brand in tapping the fast grow-ing delivery segment, its right positioning and how it plans to attract the patronage of Indian consumers. Edited excerpts.

How is PHD different from Pizza Hut?

You can see PHD as a sub-brand of Pizza Hut. Over the years, the delivery segment has gained importance in India and we have realised this. Being known as taste and quality experts is not enough for us and so now we would like to be known for delivery as well. We launched PHD in 2007. As time passed we made some changes in the positioning and understood the importance of establishing a connect with Pizza Hut. Our main proposition is to bring restaurant quality food to the homes of our customers. Currently, we have 37 standalone PHD outlets with special focus in Delhi NCR and Bangalore . We plan to open around 300 stores by 2015 across India.

Dominos, the leader in pizza delivery segment in India , has been promoting its ?30 minutes or free delivery guarantee? offer for years now. What?s your promise to the Indian consumer?

Delivery on time is what?s offered by other players in this segment. We have the promise of ?hot dot? for our customers. It is a specialised sticker that?s pasted on our pizza boxes. If we fail to deliver a hot pizza at a customer?s doorstep, he/she gets it for free. So we ensure the delivery of hot food on time. Also, this completes the connect with the hot food served in our restaurants which appeals to the taste buds of our customers. We went on air with this promise last year and will be coming up with a new campaign late this year. Also, we plan to focus on below-the-line activities like leaflets, mailers, etc., to build engagement with consumers. This will enable us to activate our current trade areas as well. We are sticking to such a media plan because our footprint is still not that big and coming up with a nationwide multi-media campaign for PHD makes no sense.

Lately, players in the quick service restaurant (QSR) segment have started pushing value meals in a big way across markets in India . Will this be a part of PHD?s strategy also for increasing its market share?

We did spare a thought on that aspect. At Pizza Hut we believe in offering quality food to our customers which tends to be at the upper end of any menu. It?s like when you add more toppings, the pizza will cost you more. We have found a solution by creating attractive bundles and then adding discounts to lure the customers. For instance, if you buy our Family Fun Meal separately, it will come for Rs 799. On the other hand, if one buys the same meal as part of our bundled offer, it will cost Rs 499. This allows you to buy food that you would otherwise shy away from because of the higher price range.

Instead of selling low quality food for as cheap as Rs 39 (being done by some players in this segment), we choose to offer attractive deals. Taking the economy route just gives you a price point with an average experience. In fact, rather than considering ourselves a part of QSR, we would like to be known as an affordable casual dining restaurant (ACDR). So we are a step above QSR now.

Apart from metros, will PHD look at entering smaller markets across India as metros have reached a saturation point?

Delivery is still nascent and more of a metro phenomena. India is growing at an unprecedented pace and in the future, a lot of action will be seen in tier 2 cities and other smaller towns. However, I do not agree that metros have reached a saturation point. There is still a lot of scope for us to grow in metros. Metros have too many average restaurants and few quality restaurants and whenever a new store opens up, you want to go there and see what?s new.

How receptive are Indian consumer to innovations in PHD?s menu?

Today, the Indian palate wants a variety of great tasting food delivered at the doorstep. There is always scope to add more pastas and desserts to our menu. We have just launched baked pastas and the response has been overwhelming. Also, we launched chocolate mousse early this year and the offtake was 3-4 times higher than what we expected.

We look forward to adding new flavours to our menu and will continue this practice.