Pizza Pizza Announces BC Expansion with New Multi-Year Partnership at BC Place [Interviews]

Pizza Pizza has launched a multi-year partnership as the official pizza of BC Place, the BC Lions and the Vancouver Whitecaps. 

Pizza Pizza, established in Ontario in 1967, entered the Lower Mainland in 2018 and has grown to over 50 locations in BC.

Pizza Pizza Limited was founded in 1967 in Toronto and has grown to become Canada’s leading national quick service pizza brand with over 775 restaurants across the country. In 2007, Pizza Pizza acquired the Pizza 73 brand, which operates over 100 locations, primarily in Alberta.

Amber Winters, Senior Director of Marketing, Pizza Pizza, said the brand opened 31 locations in Canada last year.

“We’re always open to more. We’re aggressively expanding our footprint across Canada so we are coast to coast and we added 31 locations last year and we’re looking to exceed that this year and a lot of that is headquartered in BC. We are looking to continuously find ways to connect with the audiences in the markets that we serve and deepen our engagement,” she said. 

“Sometimes that means through these sorts of stadium engagement plans or sometimes it’s just adding more restaurants in the area just to make it as easy as possible to grab a nice slice or order a pizza to enjoy your event or enjoy  your evening.

“For Pizza Pizza, we do look for locations that are quite visible. We do service not only through delivery but also through pickup and walk in traffic. So we like to find places that are high traffic, high visibility and also easy to access. That’s something we’ve found has been very successful in our history and we’ll continue to look for moving forward. We do have some in-seating spaces for customers if they want to eat on site or just want to take it home or wherever they’re heading to, making it accessible for any situation.”

Pizza Pizza has decades of experience feeding sports and entertainment fans, serving millions of slices in stadiums, arenas and festivals across the country. The pizzeria has long-standing partnerships across teams in the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, the Canadian Football League, CFL, Major League Soccer and the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“We have several (partnerships) across Canada. We’ve been in Scotiabank Arena for many, many years. In Montreal, in the Bell Centre. Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, etc. We have a lot at the pro level to anything in between from the grassroots and professional. We have Pizza Pizza in many, many buildings across the country,” said Winters.

“We feel pizza and sports, any celebratory event, whether it’s a concert or a game, is worth enjoying over a slice of pizza. We believe that Everyone Deserves Pizza and what better way to enjoy an event than to have it a great experience with a nice hot and fresh slice in your hand to tide you over for the evening. We really feel it’s been a real key to our success in our history.

“Since we’ve been in the Lower Mainland since 2018, this is really our first big stadium deal in the market and we’re really excited to bring that consistent experience to the people of BC.”

Chris May, General Manager at BC Place, said the stadium is “committed to partnering with brands that share our dedication to delivering exceptional fan experiences.”

As the largest multipurpose venue of its kind in Western Canada, BC Place provides a home for international, professional, and amateur sport, entertainment, commerce, cultural experiences, and community gatherings. BC Place is a part of BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a Provincial Crown Corporation of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture & Sport that owns and operates the Vancouver Convention Centre and BC Place.