Once upon a time, one of my sons paid a visit to my place in Better Living. He brought with him a pizza which he heated in our convection oven, then placed it on the dining table.
I took a slice. It was not bad, not bad at all. Since the kid likes to cook, I asked him if he had made the pizza. No, he said. It was from a place called Dexter's.
Dexter's Pizza has a branch along Dona Soledad Avenue. It's easy to spot because there's a life-sized cardboard cut-out of PBA star Arwind Santos outside.
Being a homegrown brand, Dexter's does not charge as much as Pizza Hut or Shakey's. No franchise fees and all that. But it's still a lot better than the other local brands, most of which have dough that tastes like ordinary bread that's just been flattened.
The pizza business is a challenging one. Over the years, we've seen local brands come and go. What Dexter's Pizza needs to do is to expand at a slow, deliberate pace, targeting a specific niche market. Getting a PBA star to endorse them is not a bad strategy for starters.
The taste of their pizza is fine for the middle market, as is their price range. They should target the youth market, which means they should open smaller branches near schools, maybe even consign to the canteens of some schools with large populations.
Their Dona Soledad branch has been open for a couple of years, at least, so this means they can survive. I'm hoping they not only survive, but bloom in the years to come. read more