Family pizza chain ‘Pizza Workz’ expands by popular demand

A family-operated pizza chain is expanding into a $35 million entertainment precinct north of Brisbane.

Pizza Workz, a family business with locations in Birkdale, Bray Park, Everton Hills and Kallangur is expanding to Dakabin. Picture: File

A Lebanese couple and their son who emigrated to Australia more than 20 years ago have had their hard work rewarded with a successful pizza chain that is now expanding north of Brisbane.

Pizza Workz, which already had locations in Birkdale, Bray Park, Everton Hills, will move its existing Kallangur outlet to a new, improved store in Dakabin.

The new store will be on the corner of Alma and Old Gympie roads within the Comiskey Group’s $35 million Dakabin Hotel precinct.

Carlos Atme, 22, has been the owner of Pizza Workz Kallangur since 2021.

From the age of 14 he would help his parents Karim and Loubna after school running their first Pizza Workz store at Everton Hills, which opened in 2017.

“After school I would prepare dough, help prepare for the nights,” Mr Atme said.

“My parents moved to Australia from Lebanon in 2000 and I was born in 2002.

“We lived in Sydney up until 2017 but Sydney got way too expensive, busy and you couldn’t find the same quality of life you have in Queensland.

“In 2017 we moved up to Brisbane and my parents were looking for work and couldn’t find something or their schedule.

“They had owned previous businesses in Sydney in hospitality and the fruit and vegetable sector.

“We wanted something we could call our own and have a good work-life balance.”

Pizza Workz, a family business with locations in Birkdale, Bray Park, Everton Hills and Kallangur is expanding to Dakabin. Picture: Fileicture: File

Not a franchise, but rather a family business, each Pizza Workz location is owned by the Atme family, trusted friends and business partners.

The move from Kallangur to Dakabin would see all of the staff moving into the new store, complimented by a new, modernised fitout, with new items to join the menu.

“The new store is getting a lot of buzz from the community and feedback,” Mr Atme said.

“Just the Comiskey pub will create a huge community hub and a meeting point for all the suburbs.

“All of our staff will be transferring over, so customers will see familiar faces.

“We are going to add some new items to the menu so we can provide our customers with more variety.”

Mr Atme attributed much of Pizza Workz’s success to sticking true to his family’s passion for pizza and their individuality, with a determination not to become a large chain like Dominos.

“Our brand is our baby, we don’t want to give that away to someone,” Mr Atme said.

“Our successes come from our community and local support, customers, friends and family and suppliers.

Pizza Workz staff at Kallangur will move to Dakabin.

“They’ve played a huge role in our business building.

“We always get feedback from customers that they want more stores

“Once the housing crisis happened and all these new estates in Moreton Bay, we found a lot have moved away from North Lakes and Kallangur, to Morayfield and Burpengary because of how expensive prices are here.”

Mr Atme said the Covid-19 pandemic actually boosted their business and allowed thme to expand.

“In Covid, more households had more spending left over with the restrictions in place,” Mr Atme said.

“Because everyone was spending large amounts of time at home, they couldn’t travel into the city for a nice meal.

“We found people shopping in their local area to find new options.

“We pride ourselves on having everything fresh and in store.

“We’ve had a lot of customers say they can’t eat pizza anywhere else.”

To find out when the new Dakabin store will open, residents should keep an eye on the Pizza Workz Kallangur Facebook page.