Pizza chain run by industry veterans launches £400k crowdfund

The group is the brainchild former Byron operations director Peter Bruton, Pod founder Tim Hall, and Emma Blackmore - who has overseen menu strategy and food development at the likes of Pizza Express and Pret A Manger.

Three Joes has already raised just over £330,000 of its target from 77 investors, with 30 days left to go.

The group, which opened its first restaurant in Fareham in August 2017 and a second in Winchester in July 2018, is planning to use the funding to open a further three sites.

The team say they are aiming to roll out Three Joes outside London by ‘taking advantage of the weak condition of the restaurant property market’.

“There is a huge oversupply and very little demand [for restaurant property],” says Hall in a video on the crowdfunding page.​​

“One of the strategies for Three Joes over the next two to three years is to take advantage of that opportunity.”

The group is targeting buildings in market towns or prominent sites in ‘ultra-high footfall locations’ like Westfield shopping centres.

“A lot of what we experienced in the early days of Byron feels the same here at Three Joes,” says Bruton.

“Customers love what we do, not like what we do. That’s the kind of feedback that gives us the real confidence that we can be a nationwide chain in a short space of time.”

The team say Three Joes is forecast to generate almost £4m of restaurant EBITDA by 2022.