How Col’Cacchio turned a lockdown trial into a pizza boom

Image supplied

The 34-year-old brand, historically associated with its restaurants, has expanded its fresh and frozen pizza range into selected Spar and Checkers stores, as well as Nibbly Bits outlets nationwide.

The move has given Col’Cacchio another route to market and extended the brand into a different consumption occasion: the at-home meal.

“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.”

Kinga Baranowska, co-founder of Col’Cacchio. Image supplied

Adapting restaurant food for the supermarket shelf

Moving from a restaurant kitchen to retail required more than putting the Col’Cacchio name on a box.

A pizza served directly from a restaurant oven follows a very different journey from one that needs to be produced, packaged, transported, stored and prepared by a consumer at home.

Col’Cacchio therefore had to adapt recipes and production processes to the retail environment while maintaining the flavour, consistency and quality associated with its restaurants.

“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.”

The approach has also allowed the brand to transfer elements of its restaurant menu into retail.

The Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline frozen pizza, for example, draws inspiration from Norm's Pralina, an established pizza on the Col’Cacchio restaurant menu.

The challenge was to translate that proposition into a product designed specifically for how consumers buy, store and prepare food at home.

From retail trial to established range

The retail expansion is now gaining recognition independently of the restaurant business.

Col’Cacchio's frozen pizza range recently received Gold and Silver at the Food & Home Awards in the Frozen and Ready-Made Meals category.

The Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline pizza received Gold and was named Best Pizza in the category, while the Frozen Pepperoni and Portuguese Sausage Pizza received Silver.

Col’Cacchio salads. Image supplied

For a brand that spent most of its first three decades serving customers through restaurants, the awards provide recognition for a range developed for a different retail environment and consumption occasion.

Building more ways to reach the customer

Retail is not replacing Col’Cacchio's restaurant proposition. Instead, it gives the brand another way to reach existing and potential customers.

The group's restaurant footprint spans South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius, while its delivery service and Col’Cacchio GO format have further extended the brand beyond the traditional restaurant experience.

Col’Cacchio was also named Best Restaurant Chain in South Africa at the 2026 South African Restaurant Awards, retaining the title it won in 2025.

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Pieterse sees these channels as complementary rather than competing for the same occasion.

“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.”

For Col’Cacchio, what began as a response to an extraordinary period for the restaurant industry has developed into a longer-term retail strategy.

The brand's move into fresh and frozen FMCG has expanded its route to market, while allowing it to take a familiar restaurant proposition into the supermarket aisle and, ultimately, consumers' homes.