When COVID-19 brought South Africa’s restaurant industry to a standstill, Col’Cacchio found itself facing a question it had never really needed to ask before: Could a brand built around eating out find a place in people’s supermarket trolleys?
The answer started with a fresh retail pizza range and a single listing at SPAR Sea Point, before growing into something much bigger as Col’Cacchio expanded its retail offering into both fresh and frozen formats.
What began as an experiment during one of the most difficult periods the restaurant industry had experienced, has since developed into a new route to market for Col’Cacchio. Its fresh and frozen retail pizzas are now available through selected SPAR and Checkers stores, as well as Nibbly Bits countrywide – taking a brand South Africans have known primarily through its restaurants into a much broader at-home occasion.
“COVID forced us to look at the business differently,” says Kinga Baranowska, co-founder of Col’Cacchio. “For years, Col’Cacchio was a place where consumers went for a meal with family and friends. Retail has allowed us to become part of a different occasion. Customers can now pick up one of our handmade pizzas while grocery shopping and enjoy it at home.”
Taking a restaurant pizza into retail
Getting onto supermarket shelves required more than putting the Col’Cacchio name on a box. A pizza moving directly from a restaurant oven to a customer’s table behaves very differently from one that needs to move through production, freezing, transport and storage before eventually being prepared in someone’s kitchen.
For Col’Cacchio, that meant adapting recipes and production processes for the retail environment without losing the flavour, consistency and crafted quality customers associated with the restaurant brand.
“Retail couldn’t feel like a watered-down version of our restaurant experience,” says Etienne Pieterse, group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “The occasion and preparation method may be different, but the customer’s expectation isn’t. If a product carries the Col’Cacchio name, it still has to be something we’re proud to put in front of people.”
That connection between restaurant and retail can be seen in products such as the Butternut, Feta & Pumpkin Seed Praline frozen pizza, which takes its inspiration from Norm’s Pralina, an established pizza on the Col’Cacchio restaurant menu. The challenge was not simply recreating the restaurant pizza in frozen form, but developing a product specifically for the way people buy, store and prepare food at home.
From experiment to recognised retail range
The move is now earning recognition beyond Col’Cacchio’s restaurants. Its frozen pizza range recently received Gold and Silver at the Food & Home Awards in the Frozen and Ready-Made Meals category. The Butternut, Feta & Pumpkin Seed Praline Pizza received Gold and was named Best Pizza in the category, while the Frozen Pepperoni & Portuguese Sausage Pizza received Silver.
For a business that spent its first three decades serving customers predominantly through restaurants, the awards provide independent recognition for products developed for a very different environment.
More ways to reach the same customer
Retail has not replaced the restaurant business Col’Cacchio has spent more than three decades building. Instead, it has added another way for customers to interact with the brand.
The group’s restaurant footprint spans South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius, while delivery and its new Col’Cacchio GO format have already extended the restaurant experience beyond the physical table.
Col’Cacchio was also named Best Restaurant Chain in South Africa at the 2026 South Africa Restaurant Awards, retaining the title it won in 2025.
Pieterse says the growth of retail is therefore less about shifting away from restaurants and more about recognising that the same customer may want Col’Cacchio in different ways at different times.
“We don’t see restaurant and retail as competing occasions,” he says. “Sometimes the customer occasion is dinner in one of our restaurants. Sometimes it’s a delivery, and sometimes it’s opening the freezer at home on a Wednesday night. We want to earn a place in each of those moments.”
What began as a response to the challenges of COVID-19 has evolved into a long-term growth channel for Col’Cacchio, taking the 34-year-old brand beyond its restaurants and into customers’ homes through an award-winning retail range.
