Hell Pizza Case Study
Hell Pizza is a bold New Zealand brand that’s always challenged the norm with its edgy humour and gourmet pizzas. Since 1996, it’s been about more than just great food. With sustainable practices and diverse options — like vegan and gluten-free — Hell Pizza creates an experience that’s as unique as its customers.
Purpose
To enhance team performance, the support office adopted two of the three pillars:
1. Measuring team health
2. Strengths-based understanding of their team
Building on this, the area management team took the next step with pillar 3: the “Boss to Coach” approach. This shift aimed to improve support for franchise owners while moving away from managing performance to developing and growing team capabilities.
Process
A comprehensive one-day workshop introduced area managers to the core “Boss to Coach” concepts, empowering them to better support franchisees.
1-on-1 coaching for half a dozen team members and franchisees
A “Train the Trainer” programme was developed to create an internal coach and equip them with a coaching guide and an online course. This laid the groundwork for Hell Pizza to eventually manage the process in-house.
Two keynote presentations at franchise meetings reinforced key concepts and aligned the area managers’ approach with franchise support.
Outcome
Stronger relationships between head office and franchisees.
Increased the leadership confidence and capability of the Area Manager team
A shared language for “how we do things around here” became embedded across the business.
The training content translated well to various settings and has since been extended into other industries—helping build leaders in fields like building products, retail, surf life-saving, and even graphic design.
Here’s what people had to say
“I’m confident with talking through the concepts and really enjoy sharing this knowledge with more people.”