Two refugees from the Bosnian war stand to make up to £3 million from the sale of the London pizza delivery company they formed.
Adnan Medjedovic and Edin Basic spoke little English when they fled the conflict in the Balkans in 1992, but after working in restaurants and Starbucks branches they opened their first branch of Firezza — a combination of the words “fire” and “pizza” — in 2001.
The business now has 11 sites, including in Chiswick, Notting Hill, Islington and Ealing, and has been put up for sale for around £6 million.
The sale is being handled by specialist corporate finance advisers Alaris Capital, and with an injection of more funds the founders hope to be able to expand to have a total of around 30 sites in London before moving to Manchester and Birmingham and other cities.
Firezza specialises in the Neapolitan practice of selling pizza by al metro — by the metre — as well as the conventional circular offering. It aims to fill the gap between restaurants such as Pizza Express and mass-market delivery services such as Domino’s by serving premium thin-base pizza.
Buffalo mozzarella is flown from Italy every week and the dough for the bases is made fresh in the restaurants every day. The most popular toppings are Bufalina and Capricciosa and the average spend per order is around £20.
The pair, who were in the final year of their architecture and engineering degrees when they left Bosnia, own 54 per cent of the company and could make around £3 million if they sell their entire holding.
The company is currently making a profit of around £1 million on its annual turnover of about £4.2 million.
