What began as a fresh-pizza retail trial in a single Sea Point supermarket during COVID has developed into a growing retail channel for the 34-year-old South African restaurant brand.
When COVID brought South Africa’s restaurant industry to a standstill, Col’Cacchio found itself facing a question it had never really needed to ask before: could a brand built around eating out find a place in people’s supermarket trolleys?
The answer started with a fresh retail pizza range and a single listing at SPAR Sea Point, before growing into something much bigger as Col’Cacchio expanded its retail offering into both fresh and frozen formats.
What began as an experiment during one of the most difficult periods the restaurant industry had experienced has since developed into a new route to market for Col’Cacchio. Its fresh and frozen retail pizzas are now available through selected SPAR and Checkers stores, as well as Nibbly Bits countrywide, taking a brand South Africans have known primarily through its restaurants into a much broader at-home occasion.
“COVID forced us to look at the business differently,” said Kinga Baranowska, co-founder of Col’Cacchio. “For years, Col’Cacchio was a place where consumers went for a meal with family and friends. Retail has allowed us to become part of a different occasion. Customers can now pick up one of our hand-made pizzas while grocery shopping and enjoy it at home.”
Taking a restaurant pizza into retail
Getting onto supermarket shelves required more than putting the Col’Cacchio name on a box.
A pizza moving directly from a restaurant oven to a customer’s table behaves very differently from one that needs to move through production, freezing, transport and storage before eventually being prepared in someone’s kitchen.
For Col’Cacchio, that meant adapting recipes and production processes for the retail environment without losing the flavour, consistency and crafted quality customers associated with the restaurant brand.
“Retail couldn’t feel like a watered-down version of our restaurant experience,” says Etienne Pieterse, Group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “The occasion and preparation method may be different, but the customer’s expectation isn’t. If a product carries the Col’Cacchio name, it still has to be something we’re proud to put in front of people.”
That connection between restaurant and retail can be seen in products such as the Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline frozen pizza, which takes its inspiration from Norm’s Pralina, an established pizza on the Col’Cacchio restaurant menu.
The challenge was not simply recreating the restaurant pizza in frozen form, but developing a product specifically for the way people buy, store and prepare food at home.
From experiment to recognised retail range
The move is now earning recognition beyond Col’Cacchio’s restaurants.
Its frozen-pizza range recently received Gold and Silver at the Food & Home Awards in the Frozen and Ready-Made Meals category. The Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline pizza received Gold and was named Best Pizza in the category, while the Frozen Pepperoni and Portuguese Sausage Pizza received Silver.
For a business that spent its first three decades serving customers predominantly through restaurants, the awards provide independent recognition for products developed for a very different environment.
More ways to reach the same customer
Retail has not replaced the restaurant business Col’Cacchio has spent more than three decades building. Instead, it has added another way for customers to interact with the brand.
The group’s restaurant footprint spans South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius, while delivery and its new Col’Cacchio GO format have already extended the restaurant experience beyond the physical table. Col’Cacchio was also named Best Restaurant Chain in South Africa at the 2026 South African Restaurant Awards, retaining the title it won in 2025.
Pieterse says the growth of retail is therefore less about shifting away from restaurants and more about recognising that the same customer may want Col’Cacchio in different ways at different times.
“We don’t see restaurant and retail as competing occasions,” he says. “Sometimes the customer occasion is dinner in one of our restaurants. Sometimes it’s a delivery, and sometimes it’s opening the freezer at home on a Wednesday night. We want to earn a place in each of those moments.”
What began as a response to the challenges of COVID has evolved into a long-term growth channel for Col’Cacchio, taking the 34-year-old brand beyond its restaurants and into customers’ homes through an award-winning retail range.
About Col’Cacchio. Founded in 1992, Col’Cacchio is a South African-born restaurant group known for its Italian-inspired menu, with pizza at the heart of its offering. Over more than three decades, the brand has expanded its restaurant footprint across South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius. Alongside its restaurants and delivery offering, and Col’Cacchio GO Brand extension, Col’Cacchio has developed a fresh and frozen retail pizza range available through selected SPAR and Checkers stores and Nibbly Bits.
SuperSAKE win highlights Col’Cacchio’s evolution from restaurant brand to growing multi-channel business
The business award adds to a run of recent recognition for the South African-born restaurant group across its restaurant and retail operations.
Cape Town, 14 September 2026 – Col’Cacchio has received a SuperSAKE Award at the 2026 ontbytSAKE Toekennings, adding business recognition to a recent run of awards for the 34-year-old South African restaurant group.
The award was presented at the annual ontbytSAKE awards evening at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria on 10 September 2026.
While Col’Cacchio has built its reputation around restaurants and pizza, the SuperSAKE recognition comes at a time when the business is reaching customers in more ways than it did when it opened its first restaurant in 1992. Today, the brand operates across restaurants and delivery, while a retail business that began during COVID with a fresh pizza range has since expanded into fresh and frozen retail offerings across selected SPAR and Checkers stores, as well as Nibbly Bits countrywide.
“For us, receiving a SuperSAKE Award is particularly meaningful because it recognises the business behind the brand,” says Etienne Pieterse, Group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “Col’Cacchio has been around for more than three decades, but longevity on its own is not enough. You have to keep adapting to how and where customers want to experience your brand.”
Recognition across restaurant and retail
The SuperSAKE win follows recent recognition for both sides of Col’Cacchio’s business.
The group was named Best Restaurant Chain in South Africa at the 2026 South African Restaurant Awards, retaining the title it won in 2025.
Its growing frozen-pizza range has also received Gold and Silver at the Food & Home Awards in the Frozen and Ready-Made Meals category. The Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline pizza received Gold and was named Best Pizza in the category, while the Frozen Pepperoni and Portuguese Sausage Pizza received Silver.
For Col’Cacchio, the recent wins feel like a reflection of how far the brand has come. From its restaurants to a retail range now finding its place in South African homes, and now recognition for the strength of the business itself through the SuperSAKE Award.
“What makes the recent recognition special is that it comes from different parts of what we do,” says Etienne Pieterse, Group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “Our restaurants remain at the heart of Col’Cacchio, but the business around them continues to grow. We have had to learn, change and find new ways to reach customers while still protecting what people expect when they see our name.”
34 years of building a South African brand
Founded in 1992, Col’Cacchio has grown from its South African roots to a restaurant footprint spanning South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius.
The business has also changed significantly over that time. Delivery created another way for customers to access the restaurant menu, while COVID led Col’Cacchio to test a fresh retail pizza range in a single Sea Point supermarket, before later expanding into frozen pizzas with Checkers. That experiment has since developed into a retail range stocked through selected SPAR and Checkers stores and Nibbly Bits countrywide.
Rather than replacing the restaurant experience, Pieterse says those channels have allowed the business to reach the same customer in different settings.
“Thirty-four years gives you a lot to be proud of, but it also gives you a responsibility to keep moving,” he says. “The challenge is knowing what should change and what shouldn’t. However, people choose to have Col’Cacchio, the quality and experience attached to the name still have to be there.”
For Pieterse, the SuperSAKE recognition is as much about what comes next as what the business has already achieved.
“We are incredibly proud of the awards, but ultimately they are a reflection of the people behind Col’Cacchio, from our teams and franchise partners to the people developing our products and serving our customers every day. That is the business we will continue to build.”
