Jennifer Sieg meets Johnnie Tate, co-founder of Yard Sale Pizza. Yard Sale, which was visited by Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and his band The Pizza Underground, now has 12 locations across London.
Sometimes, starting a business out of something you enjoy can be a no-brainer – but turning a common love for home-cooked pizza into your ticket to entrepreneurship isn’t always the first go-to method.
Johnnie Tate, however, tells me he figured out how to successfully combine the two with the debut of his award-winning, hand-delivered pizza brand Yard Sale Pizza in 2014.
Yard Sale Pizza, which had started as a way to bring family and friends together with “backyard pizza” parties in Southwest London, now has over 12 locations across North, East, and South London and is on track to hit £11m in sales this year.
Four of those locations, Tate tells me, were opened in the midst of the Covid pandemic – a rather large accomplishment.
Their secret to success, he says, was building a good quality product right from the start.
Focus on the product
Unlike many of your favourite late-night bites, you won’t be able to find Yard Sale Pizza on Deliveroo or Uber Eats.
“We’ve got our in house delivery service with our own fleet and our own riders all on our own payroll. So we don’t use any of the third parties to deliver, that’s all done in house,” Tate says, hinting at why he believes the brand has been so resilient.
The in-house delivery model is a key component of controlling the quality of the product that reaches the customer – we call it dough to door.
Johnnie Tate
It’s a USP (unique selling proposition) he believes will continue to deliver company results—as well as their “quick and hot” famous 18-inch pizza—as the team looks to open some 150 sites across the UK in the coming years.
“Ultimately, that’s why people come to us because we have a brilliant quality pizza,” Tate adds.
Steering clear of competition
The pizza business in London is undoubtedly competitive.
Whether it be Domino’s, Pizza Express or Franco Manca, if you’re a fan of pizza, odds are you have your go-to pizza joint every time you come down with a craving.
“Opening a pizza shop was a bit of a curve ball,” Tate laughs.
Yard Sale’s early-on marketing and collaboration efforts, however, set them up for success – and even Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and his band, the Pizza Underground, joined in on the fun.
“The first stop on the gig was our pizza shop, which wasn’t even finished, we turned on the oven and there was no seating. It was crazy,” he says, smiling in hindsight.
“But there we had Macaulay Culkin in the shop and it got national coverage. I mean, that was an incredible sort of marketing activation and it was very surreal.”
It might go without saying, but as a start-up, your marketing budget tends to be hauntingly low.
With a little bit of creativity and some networking, however, foundations can slowly begin to form.
Building the team
Tate laughs as he tells me he has made many mistakes while building his brand from scratch.
“I mean, it took us nearly six months to get an electric point of sale system in place in our shop, which meant we were handwriting tickets – every single order was written and every customer had to call up to order,” he says.
But rather than focusing too much on what they didn’t have, they prioritised their efforts to building what they could – a strong and reliable team.
“It’s just critical to the success of the business,” Tate adds.
“I’m very motivated by the team of people around me… we’re constantly striving to improve and be better, and I think growing the business is very motivating.”
CV
Name: Johnnie Tate
Company: Yard Sale Pizza
Founded: 2014
Staff: 240
Title: Co-Founder & CEO
Age: 39
Born: Richmond, London
Lives: Hackney, London
Studied: Photography at The Arts Institute Bournemouth
Talents: Creativity and attention to detail
Motto: ‘From dough to door’
Most known for: My love of pizza
First ambition: To play for Arsenal
Favourite book: Catch 22
Best piece of advice: People are the key to success