Pizza chain adds new flavor to Chinese market

Pizza Hut and Papa John's may have been the pizza pioneers in China, but another US company is looking to spread its more gourmet approach to the Chinese market.

Cottage Inn Pizza, founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1948, has plans to expand internationally by adding new locations in China, where it already has a storefront in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province.

"A lot of what Pizza Hut does is that they've perfected their craft: they've been in [China] for so long that they've been able to establish themselves," said Joseph Langenbacher, Cottage Inn Pizza director of product development. "Where we come in is here in the US, we're more of a gourmet pizza chain that [we offer] more of an upscale pizza product for our base." Pizza Hut declined to comment.

Cottage opened its first location in Qingdao late last year, saying that the expansion into China was a "monumental step in the company's history" and that it had plans to open 200 stores in the next 15 years. The family-run company has 56 locations across the US and is looking to reach 100 stores by the end of 2017.

Investors from China were initially interested in starting a pizza chain in China, said Langenbacher, which led to the scouting of locations in Qingdao and Beijing.

Qingdao was quickly selected as the first city for the chain, as there already was a pizza culture in the city, with many Pizza Huts and Papa John's already there, he said.

"We wanted to have the same principles in China, so we really wanted to focus on the quality of product, whether it's the pizza or the expanded menu," he said.

Pizza Hut offers a sit-in restaurant experience, and Langenbacher said Cottage will offer a similar environment for customers, with an expanded menu that is adapted to Chinese tastes.

"We feel like we have to offer the [restaurant] experience," Langenbacher said. "It's more suitable to have an actual dining experience for the area. They enjoy to take their time with their family and dine."

He said that the company also looked at several chains in China that have tried to deliver pizza and found that Chinese customers don't prefer to eat pizza at home; they like going to a restaurant.

"We really want to focus on the dine-in experience in China,"Langenbacher said.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com