Scottish franchisee to launch Domino’s in Germany

A serial Scottish franchisee has announced plans to launch Germany’s first-ever Domino’s Pizza outlet.

Sean Geddes, who runs a chain of 11 Domino’s restaurants north of the border, will open a total of three outlets across the central European country before the end of the year, creating around 70 jobs in the process.

The inaugural franchise will open at Aachen, a university town on Germany’s western border, in May. Plans are in place to open the second branch in Cologne over the summer, although the timing and location of the third outlet have yet to be decided.

Explaining his choice of location, Geddes told The Scotsman:

“Germany is a virgin market so we’ve selected Aachen because it’s near Belgium and the Netherlands, where the Domino’s brand is already familiar.

“Aachen is a university town with about 45,000 students, and young people tend to be the first to adopt new brands.”

Geddes has recruited Gordon Penman, manager of Domino’s’ Edinburgh branch, to head up the German operation, and says he has injected around £1m into researching the fledgling market.

The seasoned entrepreneur has been operating Domino’s franchises since 2001, and also runs Britain’s only mobile Domino’s division, selling pizza at music festivals. He was awarded the European master franchise in 2010, in recognition of his success and loyalty to the brand.