The Ben Mulroney Show - Small business week spotlight -- Pizza Nova's Domenic Primucci

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

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We at the Ben Mulroney Show hold small and medium-sized business owners in the highest regard. Those who bet on themselves, bet on their idea, put their money, money where their mouth was and tried to build something for themselves, for their communities, for their country. And so this week we are finding people who have started small business. In some cases, they're no longer small businesses. But they remember what it's like to be a small business owner. And it's time to get some insights from those people in the hopes of helping the next generation of entrepreneurs. So please welcome to the show from Pizanova. Dominic Pramucci. Dominic, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Ben. Thank you for having me on the show today. It's awesome to talk about business. Indeed, indeed. Okay, so Pizza Nova. My kids said we love Pizza Nova in our house. Pizanova founded May 12th, 1963 by your dad, Sam. I have to believe, and you, sir, learnt the business by taking on every role in the business

before assuming a leadership position. That's correct, Ben. I mean, as you can appreciate when back in the early days of the company, my dad and he had started with his brothers as well. And by the way, can we just say the names are straight out of central casting? Mike, Vince and Joe. Yes. And so, you know, at a young age, you're brought into, you know,

go to work with dad and so on and so forth. but, I mean, I started at the age of 14, and my first job was washing dishes. So I can tell you, I can why. I mean, I learned from the best, and I can wash a mean dish before dishwashers were, you know, they were around, but not as readily available today. Do you remember those early days of Pizza Nova when your family was trying to build it? You know, my sense is it's a lot harder to take. create something from nothing than it is to take something that exists and grow it?

I think they both have its advantages and difficulties, if you will, I think that... Well, what were some of these challenges in the early days if you can remember? Because you were a kid. Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, what do I remember? But, I mean, at that time, pizza was not a... a dinner or lunch. I mean, at that time, we all, we, I remember my father and the, brothers, the restaurants

opened at 4 o'clock, so it was more late, later day type of meal. But it wasn't your meal. It was more of like a snack at the time. And I recall, you know, at midnight being extremely busy, we'd have a rush at midnight because people would be, you know, getting hungry. late, coming home late from wherever and so and so forth. So it was really a not an alternative to a meal. Today, it's your meal, right?

Today, it's fast forward to today. It's your lunch. It's your, it's your... Hey, depending on who you are, it can be breakfast too, my friend. Pizza can be breakfast, too. I guess I can assure you of that. Yeah, 100%. Dominic, so talk to me about the here and now 2025.

What are some of the challenges facing, even an established company like Pizza Nova. What are some of the headwinds that you're facing? Well, there's a lot of, there's quite a few challenges. You know, I don't want to bark back to 2020 and it's, you know, the pandemic, but the pandemic did change the landscape out, you know, in our business, in the food service business. All of a sudden, the Uber eats, the third party aggregators of the world have come on board and come on board strong. So not only can you just buy pizza and say, Chinese food, which were the staples in food order takeout at the time or before that.

Now it's anything and everything. Right. So you're competing in a way that you were never competing before because so much of your business was built on being the food that gets delivered. And now every food is delivered. Oh, that's interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, yeah. And it's funny because everybody says, oh, now there's lots of delivery options and so there's lots of delivery.

and so there's lots of delivery. Delivery is the new way of doing business. We've been doing delivery for 62 years. So it's nothing new for our business. Sure. However, you know, and then there's other challenges, right? I mean, I was talking to somebody last week who said that one of the issues they have is staffing, that it's still hard to get people to, you know, young people to come on board because

as you started as a dishwasher, a lot of them, in his opinion, it was the CEO of Food Tastic out of Montreal. all, he said that nobody wants to be a dishwasher for the rest of their lives, but you're proof positive that just because you start as a dishwasher doesn't mean you end as one. That's right. You know, I believe that you've got to start somewhere. I mean, you can't start at the top. So you need to build that experience, whatever, in anything you do, it doesn't have to be food service.

It could be anything. whatever you do, you're going to probably start at the bottom somewhere. Yeah. And you've got to work your way up, but you have to be eager and passionate enough to do the work. I mean, if you're eager and passionate enough to do the work, you will learn and you will move through the organization. And that's where it's, that's where it begins. You can't go into a job saying, well, I hate this job before you even get it. You hate it before you even get it, then, you know, why are you even doing it at that point?

Dominic, there was a poll that or a study that came out from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and said that 70 plus percent of small business owners would not recommend to a friend to start a small business today. Now, given the fact that small and medium-sized business represent 52% of Canada's non-public GDP, the fact that the drivers of that size of our economy wouldn't recommend that others get into that aspect of the economy is a, it's a, it's a worrying number. What would your advice be to somebody who wants to start a business today? Well, I understand that comment and it's very well noted, but however, as you said, 52% of our economy is driven by small businesses.

And, you know, although our company has grown to be not a small business any longer, or maybe more of a medium-sized business. However, we have franchisees. So in my way, I look at this, we're a collection of small businesses. We have one-owner shops that franchisees have invested in our brand, become partners of our brand,

and want to do something for their future. And they're a small business, but under the one umbrella of our brand, Pizza Nova, but they're still small businesses, and they're still small local. businesses. And what's, you know, where I look at this is that, you know, we've had a lot of great success with our franchisees. Franchisees have worked very hard. They've got, you know, over the years, they've put their children through schooling and, uh, university and, and become, you know,

some of them become doctors and lawyers as all parents want their kids to be or whatever else they've, they've, uh, uh, you know, become whatever they, whatever they, whatever they, have a passion for. So I think the small businesses still are crucial to our economy, and I think that, you know, that don't get discouraged, but I think it just have to be, you got to understand that it's, although you open a business, doesn't mean that it's, you know, you're guaranteed X amount of dollars. You're not.

You've got to work hard at it. Dominic, last question for you as we wind up this conversation. And I thank you for your time. and I thank you for your pizza too. But the idea of managing a brand and protecting a brand in a franchise model, how do I say how precious do you have to be over your brand? In other words, if a franchisee wants to come to you and say,

they want to do something a little different because for whatever reason, the appetite in their neighborhood, the demographics in their neighborhood are calling to do something just outside of what you would want them to do, Is there ever a discussion to be had one-on-one with a franchisee to say, you know what, that's typically not what we do, but we're going to, we'll allow you to test it out because, yes, you do have a different demographic, like, how, how protective are you over the brand of Pizza Nova? Well, there's two, two different thoughts of that. I mean, we have to be protected of the brand pizza Nova where the reason the company has succeeded is because of these, you know, procedures that we put in place are, our product, which is first and foremost, right?

Yeah. I mean, it's the product quality that makes us who we are today. So this is, you have to protect that. Yeah. And we have to protect it all the way through. Now, if somebody wants to add a different topping or ingredient to our pizza and, yeah, let's try it. Let's try it. Let's try it in your area. Because you never know, right?

Do sell slices. So, you know, they can put it on a slice display and see what it requires. All right, my friend. And we've done that. Dominic Camucci from Pizanova. Thank you so much for the insights. All the best. And thank you for all the hard work you've done to build Pizanova

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