The Pie Foundry operates a vertically integrated model from central manufacturing to the customer, capturing value at three layers: manufacturing margin (producing standardised products at scale), retail margin (company-owned outlets) and franchise/wholesale margin (fees, royalties, product supply and frozen distribution). The manufacturing platform is the flywheel, the more outlets and channels it supplies, the greater its procurement leverage and fixed-cost dilution.

Revenue streams

Franchise-derived revenue (fees, royalties and product supply) grows to roughly R100 million, about 47% of Year-5 revenue. This is the engine of the model’s scalability and, equally, its central execution dependency: the plan requires recruiting and supporting roughly 130 franchisees within five years (Finding 4, Section 18).

Store-level unit economics

At the retail point, the premium positioning supports a healthy gross margin after food and packaging cost, out of which store labour, occupancy and other operating costs are met to leave a store-level EBITDA margin in the high teens. Central manufacturing is what makes this achievable: by shifting production off-site, in-store labour and waste fall, throughput rises, and quality is held constant across every outlet. The illustrative economics below (expressed per R100 of sales) show the contribution structure that underpins both company-store profitability and the franchisee value proposition.