Pertti Kallioinen’s first virtual restaurant saw the light of day in 2020.
A new domestic challenger entered the Finnish pizza market two years ago, operating through familiar neighborhood pizzerias.
Pertti Kallioinen founded Pizza Cartel had a simple idea: to bring quality pizzas to the whole of Finland as well as additional income and marketing support for small entrepreneurs.
Pizza Cartel proved to be a success that spawned more chains. Now the business has grown and the name has changed to Munchfam. It is an umbrella brand that includes the Pizza Cartel, Seven by Forty and Anchor bar Wings restaurant concepts.
JULIUS KONTINEN
– We are going to Europe at a good pace. Next week we will open in Denmark and next we will aim for Germany, says Kallioinen.
According to him, the original idea is still valid, which means that Munchfam’s task is to help existing restaurants do better business in addition to their own business.
Unlike virtual restaurants in general, Munchfam’s brands and menus are also visible to the customer in a physical restaurant.
– And our virtual restaurant does not prohibit eating on site.
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Munchfam has grown into Scandinavia’s largest virtual restaurant.
Kallioinen says that he received a call from the United States a couple of days ago from an operator of a large cloud restaurant chain.
– According to him, we do things in a different way than anyone else before. The biggest difference is that we let the restaurant sell it to existing customers. There are two hundred thousand virtual restaurants in Finland, but we still do things differently for the first time, Kallioinen states.
Julius Konttinen
Although the growth of Pizza Cartel, now Munchfam, has been fast, according to Kallioinen, mistakes have also been made along the way. But now European growth has attracted investors and more capital.
Kallioinen predicts that in a couple of months, Munchfamil will have almost 200 restaurants in Europe. And in two years, the number of restaurants will be much bigger.
– The train is moving, and we are involved in it.
JULIUS KONTINEN