Fledgling pizza concept, Doughnation, aims to build an estate of 40-50 sites across the UK and internationally.
Game Changers Investments (GCI) introduced the brand to 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden earlier this year, seeking to blend artisanal pizza-making with philanthropy.
Doughnation represents the latest addition to GCI’s portfolio, which currently supports 14 to 15 chef-led concepts across the UK, and Middle East. In Covent Garden, it joins existing brands Pivot Bar & Bistro and Hawaiian street food restaurant El Ta’koy.
The restaurant’s offerings, crafted in collaboration with chef Mark Greenaway, has been well-received so far, GCI’s Development Director, Drew Clover tells MCA.
The menu features innovative toppings, such as Potato Pizza with Fontana cheese and thyme salt, Truffled Mushroom Ragout with hazelnuts, and the 3 Prawn Deluxe with a trio of prawns. The brand is committed to social responsibility, donating a portion of proceeds from every pizza sold to various charitable causes.
Looking forward, GCI has ambitious plans for Doughnation. “We are in talks in the Middle East and the UK. We’re also in conversations with hotels, travel, and airports,” Clover reveals. The vision is to roll out the brand using the franchise model, particularly in high-volume locations.
Having previously sat on the board of airport food-service provider, HMSHost, Clover’s experience in managing high-volume locations in travel hubs has been instrumental in shaping the Doughnation brand strategy.
“We’ve created a model that is de-skilled but offers high-end products, creating great margins while also being franchise-ready,” Clover says. “This makes sense commercially for the current market and also offers the end user an artisan experience.”
One of the key advantages of Doughnation’s setup is its flexibility regarding infrastructure. “We only have limited extraction needs, which opens up a lot of opportunities for us,” Clover explains. This allows the brand to expand into diverse venues, including a strategy to license to pubs, bars, and hotels; “Pub retail needs branded offers, they can bring our concept to life, even if they don’t have the infrastructure,” says Clover.
GCI’s home at 3 Henrietta Street serves as the incubator hub for brands like Doughnation, providing an ideal environment for growth and exposure. “Having a world-class location in Covent Garden has proved its worth,” Clover says. “This is our showcase location. If we run things here for 18 months to two years, our ambition is to use it as a showcase and switch them out once they start to get some critical mass elsewhere.”
The London-based investment company aims to create an ecosystem where new brands can flourish, backed by the resources and support they need to succeed.
“Game Changers was born during the pandemic. There was an opportunity for good value property and a lot of talented chefs and entrepreneurs around with nothing to do. The formation of Game Changers was to put those two things together, giving chefs who didn’t have much work an opportunity to invest time and effort into something scalable.”
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