Taste Holdings, JSE-listed management group with subsidiaries in the food and jewellery market, on Tuesday said four Domino Pizzas were opened in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town at the end of last month.

Earlier this year, Taste Holdings entered into an exclusive Master Franchise Agreement with Domino’s Pizza International, an American eatery chain with head offices in Michigan, USA.

“The board is pleased with the enormously positive initial customer feedback and at the overwhelming reception of fresh hand tossed pizza and the Domino’s Pizza brand by South African customers,” it said on Tuesday.

“With various sales records having been broken in the first full week of trade, sales in all four stores have more than exceeded the Board’s expectations,” it added.

Taste’s Holdings largest store served in excess of 3,000 pizza fans over 5,000 pizzas in this first week and sales momentum across all four stores has continued into the second week since opening.

The four stores, which are all corporate owned stores, will be utilised as training springboards for the conversion of existing Scooters Pizza and St. Elmo’s stores to Domino’s Pizza stores, which conversions will be well underway in the first half of the 2015 calendar year.

A further two corporate training stores will be opened in Gauteng before the end of 2014.

In addition to a corporate store pipeline building into the 2015 calendar year, the group is in discussion with several prospective new multiple store franchisees who have expressed interest in building significant Domino’s Pizza store clusters both in South Africa and in other Southern African markets.