Love Pizza targets national expansion following launch of £300k Manchester store

Takeaway pizza startup Love Pizza has opened its first site in Manchester with the help of a £100k loan from the Regional Growth Fund.

The firm, which is owned by Taste Maker Concepts Limited, plans to expand across the UK through franchising after launching the store on Hulme High Street.

In addition to the Regional Growth Fund loan supplied by lender Business Finance Solutions (BFS), Love Pizza invested £200k of its own cash into developing the new site, installing stoke bake ovens imported from Italy and a conveyor belt made of interlocking stone slats.

Further, the company has partnered with ePoS (point of sale) system developer pointOne and online ordering platform creator OrderSwift.

Love Pizza was co-founded by entrepreneurs Harinder Dhaliwal and Anil Sumra. MD Harinder also owns property investment firm First Step Group, while operations director Anil is the owner of a London-based management consulting business.

Harinder commented: “We are absolutely passionate about creating a new style of pizza delivery business and the loan from BFS has meant that our first premises is now up and running and we are already looking at other sites across the North West and nationally.

“Consumers are increasingly demanding a more authentic way of cooking and what we are able to deliver is the gourmet stone-baked pizza taste that you might find at a food market or festival – but delivered to the door with a guarantee of quality.”

BFS’ senior loan manager, Andy Nichols, called Love Pizza “one of the most exciting and ambitious businesses” he has worked with so far this year.

He continued: “Like many motivated startup businesses, [the company has] detailed business plans and some funds in place.

“Securing the low interest loan from BFS meant that they were able to move quickly to get the first premises up and running and to invest in the high quality equipment and IT that is at the heart of their business model.”