Eagle Boys

Eagle Boys

Company type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	Albury, New South Wales, Australia
Headquarters	Annerley, Queensland, Australia
Key people	Bruce Scott CEO
Products	Italian-American cuisine pizza · pasta · desserts
Parent	NBC Capital
Website	www.eagleboys.com.au

Eagle Boys is an Australian fast food chain specialising in pizza. Eagle Boys has more than 210 stores throughout Australia, particularly in regional areas. Currently it has no stores in Tasmania. Eagle Boys was as of 2007 the third largest pizza chain in the country.

History

The restaurant chain opened its first store in Albury, New South Wales in 1987 by local businessman Tom Potter. Eagle Boys' national headquarters are located in the Brisbane suburb of Annerley.

Eagle Boys set up in New Zealand in the mid-nineties with 55 stores, and operated for some years. They were later all sold to Restaurant Brands in 2000 for NZ$28m and converted to Pizza Hut.

The company specialised in 2 minute "express" pizzas (limited range of 4) between 5:30 and 8:00 pm, which was achieved by constantly remaking their four most popular pizzas and keeping them in a warmer for sale up to eight minutes after they have been made. However, as of 2008, Eagle Boys have discontinued the express line in favor of a similar promotion "Ready, Fresh Go!", featuring 2 of the express pizzas and a "Manager's Special'.

As of 2007, Eagle Boys Pizza had celebrated 20 years in the industry. It was announced also that they are expanding to an additional 40 stores in 2007.

In July 2008, Eagle Boys entered into a deal to acquire the Pizza Haven chain across Australia.

In May 2015, Eagle Boys announced it was aiming to expand with a plan for 50 outlets in India by the end of 2015. The same month a franchisee opened an Eagle Boys store in Suva, Fiji.

Marketing

In 2007, Eagle Boys launched the "Vote 1 Full Size Large Pizza" campaign bringing to task its competitors for selling smaller pizzas. The campaign produced a sales uplift of over 27%.

In 2009, the pizza chain announced a $7 million advertising campaign, called the "Real" campaign, that reinforced its "Bigger, Better" slogan. The campaign involved the VW "Real Mobile" driving around Australia offering Eagle Boys pizza and recording testimonials for a TV commercial. Later in the year, Eagle Boys launched another campaign comparing its pizzas to those of competitor's, this time built around the "blind taste test" which found almost half of test subjects preferred Eagle Boys pizzas to those of pizzas from Domino's and Pizza Hut combined.

In 2010, Eagle Boys launched a multi-million dollar campaign "31 New Menu Items – Each One Delicious”. The campaign was the first to use Eagle Boys' new phone name 1300 EAGLE BOYS. New pastas were among the 31 new menu offerings, Desserts were also included, among them a chocolate fudge mousse that received a Gold Medal at the 2010 Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show. The menu was tested over a 12-month period ahead of the launch. Eagle Boys told media it expected a 15% spike in sales on the back of the launch. The chain also announced it would scale back its social media spend.

In 2011, the chain released advertising "Our large pizzas are bigger than theirs" in another attempt to demonstrate their large pizza offered effectively an extra slice of pizza to their closest rival, Domino's. Domino's chief executive, in response, told media that "value is not in the size of a pizza." Eagle Boys recorded a 20% jump in sales in the first week of the campaign compared to the previous week. The pizza chain also announced it would be supporting the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, with a plan to donate more than $200,000 over three years to the charity, starting with $1 from every dessert sold during Cerebral Palsy week in August 2011.

Rebranding in 2013 as part of the "making pizza happy" campaign involved introducing a new logo along with new pizza boxes and uniforms. The company introduced a "happy bell" to ring when customers were having a good time—aiming for a happier feeling for the in-store experience. The campaign was rolled out in stages, beginning in Far North Queensland, a decision Eagle Boys said was deisnged to pay homage to the chain's regional heritage.

By 2014, around one-third of the pizza chain's marketing budget was directed to digital spend. That year, the chain released a campaign leveraging off the release of Australian film Fat Pizza vs. Housos. It also announced a partnership with streaming company Quickflix, offering customers an exclusive deal on a one DVD and streaming bundle package.

2015 saw Eagle Boys launch the first "store of the future" in Bundaberg. The concept store, with a design including exposed brickwork and recycled timber, was developed based on research carried out on customer preferences and behaviours.

Stores

Eagle Boys stores can be found in New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. The stores have a strong regional emphasis with most outlets located in non-metropolitan areas. Some stores feature drive-through "Express" window.

Smaller stores can be found in service stations, Night Owl (Brisbane Valley) Convenience Stores, and other locations such as the International and Domestic Terminals at Brisbane Airport and Perth Airport.

Franchisee issues

On 3 October 2014 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that former franchisees asserted that the current franchisor, NBC Capital, had stopped print and media advertising since purchasing the business. The number of stores was reported to have halved from 340 locations.

See also

• Domino's Pizza Enterprises
• Pizza Haven
• List of pizzerias in Australia
• List of restaurant chains in Australia
• List of fast food restaurant chains

External links

• Official Website