The Fat Pizza

About The Fat Pizza

Sunny Chhina founded Southend-based The Fat Pizza in 2020 and it now has more than 40 branches throughout the country. Chhina said: “The Fat Pizza model means that we are able to open stores very rapidly - a store can be converted to Fat Pizza within four weeks. The Fat Pizza is flexible with its choice of location - we have high street locations, delivery-only commercial kitchens, pure kitchen space as well as restaurants and pubs and bars.”

Pizza certainly runs in the family, with Chhina telling Pizza & Pasta Magazine that his parents were franchisees with Perfect Pizza in the 1990s, and he decided to strike out on his own after the brand was taken over by Papa John’s. “I think I’ve had a pizza every day since I was 13 years old,” he said. “I learnt about the industry early, running one of the stores at 17 - doing my A-level studies out the back of the shop. My dad was friends with the bank manager, so I asked if I could get a loan for a franchise of my own, and the rest is history. I’d had various franchises but realised that I wasn’t learning much anymore, so The Fat Pizza was born.

“It’s also my own secret recipe, so I’ve had a hand in every pizza we’ve produced - the main machine that makes our dough mixture is in Southend and I put all the ingredients in. My two teenage boys are a big part of the business as they’ve been coming into stores since they were around five or six years old, providing honest feedback. In fact, my eldest, Ishaan, has been directly involved with putting carbon ratings on our menus.”

In December 2024, The Fat Pizza made its international debut, in Dubai. Chhina said The Fat Pizza franchise is delivery-focused but offers all models, including dark kitchens and a new pub concept. “We will be looking to go into existing pub kitchens and we’ve got one as the pilot project, in Southend,” Chhina said. “We could take over a pub, but brewers move a lot slower than we do - we have a turnaround of four weeks. Our model lends itself easily to the concept, and if the pilot goes well, I feel that we may grow faster still!”

In May 2026, Chhina told Propel he is launching a new pub concept and plans to roll it out across the UK. After looking at possibilities in Southend and taking over the kitchen of an existing pub, Chhina is set to launch the first The Fat Lounge in Station Road, Cambridge. A large pizza delivery kitchen opened first, in June, followed by the pub.

Chhina said: “It didn’t work out in Southend, but I think that was a blessing in disguise. This is a similar concept but we’re going to do it ourselves - it’s an equity site so I have full control over it. The dark kitchen means I only need to do a very low level of wet sales, and just the profit from that would put me where I am normally with a The Fat Pizza location. We’ve got an increase in rent and rates and front of house labour, but the differential in costs from a normal dark kitchen isn’t that much. Any food we sell inside the pub is then a bonus - we don’t even need to sell any, but we’ll be offering the full Fat Pizza menu and there will be digital kiosks.

“There’s no chef required, and the tech stack means, for example, if we have a customer who only orders for delivery, we can send a push notification saying come into the pub for a pint for £2. If it works, it will be the pilot for 60-70% of our future franchises, apart from the 20-odd we already have in the pipeline and will open over the next three months or so. We won’t open a The Fat Lounge where there’s already a The Fat Pizza in the delivery area, because the only way this concept works is via the delivery area itself.”

Why franchise with The Fat Pizza

• ✓A The Fat Pizza franchise offers pioneering use of technology to automate and receive feedback from all operations within the store; high volume stores; call centre systems to simplify processes within each store; novel marketing techniques to increase sales rapidly; and research to its operating in the best possible location. The automated process ensures better customer service and streamlines operations. Other examples include driver dispatch automation, automated stock ordering and rota scheduling, while the system is designed so minimal training is needed. The company is looking for master franchises with a string knowledge of local food delivery markets; access to financial resources to set up and support the master franchise; access to relevant banking and a focus to build the brand.
• ✓The company said: “Our leading-edge technology combined with the best delivered pizza in the UK ensures that we continue to grow and most importantly, help our franchisees into profitability within weeks of opening. After growing and continuing to grow rapidly within the UK we are now ready for a master franchise model in order to expand into international markets.
• ✓“The Fat Pizza has one main goal – to pioneer the use of new technology within our systems in order to increase instore profitability. We combine this with a digital led approach to marketing and the ability to pivot to take advantage of new trends within the industry.”
• ✓A franchise fee of £10,000 is to be paid before any training, which is compulsory, starts. Ongoing royalty support fee is 10% and 3% (portals) of sales, which includes centralised money for marketing initiatives. Franchisees are encouraged, where possible, to conduct campaigns together. The company aims to make new stores profitable within four weeks but overall spend depends on the ROI that can be achieved.
• ✓Marketing is a mixture of centrally managed and franchise managed programs, specifically targeted to get results using use targeted effective digital marketing. Advice and analysis of all marketing activities is undertaken to ensure that there is a suitable return of investment for all activities. Set up costs are expected to be around £70,000 per store, which includes equipment, marketing, refurbishment, franchise fee, initial supplies and legal costs.

Investment breakdown