Unlike its name suggests, New York Pizza is a Dutch success story. The formula started in 1993, when Philippe Vorst with a brother and an associate sold pizza points on the Spui in Amsterdam: fast, affordable and on the go, like in the Big Apple. They quickly expanded and started delivery in 1996.
Today, the majority of sales come from online orders, delivered from over three hundred franchisee locations in the Netherlands and Germany. In 2021, the company was acquired by Norwegian conglomerate Orkla; three years later, co-founder and CEO Philippe Vorst stepped down. With Debbie Klein, an outsider took the helm for the first time. "After ten years of sports, ten years of department stores and ten years of furniture, I am now active in food," outlines the top woman. "I love it. We have a great product and a fun target market. Pizza is fun."
- Debbie Klein
Things are going well for New York Pizza, as evidenced by the awards the formula won late last year: Website of the Year in the food & beverages category and winner of the Data Innovation Award for its proprietary AI agent and dashboards. Klein: "These awards make me proud, it is the merit of our colleagues at headquarters, our partners and our franchisees. Our pizzas are the product of innovativeness and community, I sometimes say. Then it's nice to get appreciation from both the public and professionals."
New York Pizza wants to make it "as delicious and easy as possible" to order, Klein continued. "We have a well-oiled machine and our app is well appreciated, but as far as I'm concerned, this is just the beginning. The market is evolving tremendously. We are constantly thinking about where we want to go as a platform as ChatGPT, Copilot and similar AI assistants become more and more popular. It is extremely important for us to be where the customer is."
Developments in agentic com merce are rapidly following one another. In the U.S., ChatGPT users can now order from platforms like DoorDash and Instacart without leaving the app. It makes Klein "not worried, but alert," she says. "It's the next phase in tech. We are in the process of joining the vanguard. That means watching closely what's happening, embracing best practices and experimenting. Innovation is a mindset, a core value of this company."
That was true 30 years ago and it still is, says the CEO. "I've seen in previous roles how compartmentalized organizations can look at marketing and growth, with tight international reins. Instead, our owner gives us the space to look broadly, experiment and work with best-in-class partiesand best-of-breed solutions. We learn from that and build on that."
- Debbie Klein
That applies, for example, to the award-winning conversational data assistant that New York Pizza's marketing team developed with agency Turntwo."Our digital data analysis buddy," Klein calls it. The smart agent "talks" live to the Marketing Intelligence Hub and provides ready-made advice, analysis and visualizations to employees. Information previously accessible only to data specialists is now available to the entire organization.
"You can ask our buddy anything, and he'll talk back," Klein said of the internal AI assistant that has boosted data-driven work organization-wide. "For example, we can create even smarter and more relevant campaigns."
How does Klein, who previously worked at Nike, adidas, V&D, Beter Bed and Leen Bakker, among others, like it in food? Does she see major differences from non-food? "Digitally, it doesn't matter that much: a configurator is a configurator, whether it's a sofa or a pizza. With pizza, of course, you do have to deal with a high ordering frequency of about once every two weeks. For the customer, the customer journey is less uncertain than with such a large purchase."
"That provides opportunities for collaborations such as the one with Kwekkeboom for the bitterball pizza, with Old Amsterdam and with Bulldak sauce: collabs that our target audience resonates with and that can go viral . Although there are certainly as many comfort food buyers who go for the familiar recipe."
Klein is proud of New York Pizza and pleased with how it is doing in a tough market: "'There is no such thing as a lazy version of retail,' my boss at V&D used to say. In food, it's no different. Large QSR (Quick Service Restaurants, ed.) chains are struggling, and after covid, the market has become more fickle. On the other hand, Millennials and Gen Z order food four times more often than older generations do. They have and maintain a different eating pattern, it may cost more and they value speed. In that respect, the outlook is promising."
"We are trying to make a difference with product quality: our own dough is fresh and 100 percent natural, we are also going to put more emphasis on that. We have a fantastic crystallized delivery network and we are becoming available in more and more places in the Netherlands. We work well with platform companies, where we can turn exploratory visitors into customers. Meanwhile, we remain bold and innovative, from product to delivery."
Klein identifies three key points on New York Pizza's digital roadmap for this year. "We are going to make strides with agents, developments in that are going fast. Not as an end in itself, but as a means to become more efficient, better, smarter and more effective. That applies to all our use of AI, in many different places. From product development to commercials and from audience segmentation to data analysis, it's constant experimentation. AI is an enabler."
A second digital spearhead is loyalty: New York Pizza wants to keep customers with them longer, making them more valuable. "Customers should have the best experience with us, with personalized offers, special extras and, for example, volume discounts for large families. We are working on a toolbox with different tools. We want to take technical support to the next level, but also the way customers can put together their own pizzas online."
Finally, data-driven product innovation remains high on the digital agenda. Klein: "Think of the continued development of tools we use to scrape social media to see what's buzzing . For example, we capitalized on the K-food trend and developed our Pistachio Dessert Bread, inspired by the Dubai chocolate trend."
At Webwinkel Vakdagen, Klein shares how New York Pizza puts innovation into practice. She discusses the award-winning analytics buddy and identifies prerequisites for successful application of AI. So she talks not so much about what can be done, but how it succeeds. "I pitch it pragmatically and I point out the importance of an innovative culture and organization. It starts with the people who have to apply tools."
Debbie Klein, CEO of New York Pizza, will give a keynote presentation on Wednesday, March 25, at 2:30 p.m. at Webwinkel Vakdagen.