Mario Aleppo

Aleppo is the eldest son of a family with Italian roots from Mitcham in south London. At 16 he was expelled from school with no qualifications and later dropped out of college; in his early years he worked at Nando’s and opened a coffee shop, which went bust after six months.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Aleppo had originally planned to open a Subway franchise, but as an Italian he saw a gap in the market for an authentic pizzeria that could serve food as quickly as fast food, so he combined the two ideas. In 2016, with a bank loan, he rented an empty shop in Sutton, Surrey, and opened the first Fireaway Pizza with three employees, quickly followed by new stores in Streatham and Thornton Heath.⁠[2][2][1][1]

Fireaway uses a Subway-style ordering format: customers build their own pizzas from 25 toppings for a single price, and the pizzas are fast-fired in a stone oven and ready in about 180 seconds, which gave the brand its name; main ingredients such as tomatoes and flour are imported from Italy.⁠[3][2][3]

In 2019 Fireaway won the Best Small Pizza Chain award at the annual awards of the Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association (PAPA).⁠[4][2]

In January 2021 Fireaway opened its 50th store and planned to open another 50 within a year, having opened eight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aleppo said franchising had not been the plan when the first store opened, but a franchise-heavy rollout had allowed the brand to grow quickly and would remain its growth strategy; all but one of the upcoming openings were to be run by franchise partners.⁠[3][3][3][3]

By November 2021 Fireaway had grown from one store and three employees to 94 stores and more than 500 employees. That year Fireaway won the Rising Star Pizza Chain of the Year title at the PAPA Awards.⁠[2][4]

In November 2022, with close to 130 stores, Aleppo, previously the company’s only shareholder, brought in six new investors, each taking 1% of the business for £187,000, which valued Fireaway at £18.7 million. Aleppo said the investment would help the company expand internationally, and that the money would also fund a major marketing campaign and improvements to its ordering app and website.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

In November 2022 Aleppo won the Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year award for London and the East of England at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.⁠[5][5]

On June 25, 2023, The Venture RoomThe Venture RoomThe Venture Room is a UK entrepreneurial media brand centered on the YouTube channel @theventureroom. Through long-form interviews with founders and street interviews such as “Asking Millionaires How They Got Rich?”, it presents entrepreneurs’ stories and advice to aspiring business owners, and runs an entrepreneur community and brand partnerships.Open the full entry released a long-form podcast interview with Aleppo. In the program he recalled growing up in Mitcham, washing cars and selling snacks at school as a boy, and said he is half Italian and had originally wanted to open a Subway, eventually keeping Subway’s store layout but switching to the more complicated product of pizza. He said the first store was funded with £20,000 of savings and a £25,000 loan from HSBC, that it was located in Rose Hill, Sutton, that he acted as manager, delivery driver, and assistant, and that it made a profit of about £30,000 in its first year; the first store was his own, the second was opened by a franchisee, and the franchise income from the first store and the proceeds of selling it helped him open the third.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

On franchising, he said that unlike many brands that take nine or ten percent of sales, Fireaway charges franchisees a flat fee across the board. He said the chain then had 145 stores and had sold country master franchise licenses for eight countries, including Australia, with a goal of about 500 stores; he also said the company had been valued at just under £20 million a few months earlier, with a five-year goal of £100 million.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

On March 9, 2025, The Venture Room released a street interview filmed in Mayfair, London, in which Aleppo appeared again. He said the company runs 160 pizzerias across the UK and Europe and had turned over just under £16 million in the previous year, with a valuation of about £20 million; he recalled that in the early days he worked in the business from 11 in the morning to 11 at night, then went to the cash and carry for supplies after closing, and sometimes was still putting leaflets through doors at one in the morning.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

By May 2025 Fireaway had 169 stores across the UK and Ireland, with average takings of about £12,000 per store per week and turnover of more than £14 million in the previous year; its 150th store had opened about seven months earlier. The company was opening stores in Dubai, Portugal, and Turkey, and Aleppo said he hoped to reach 400 stores in the UK and was seeking more investment to do so. He also gave free shares in the company to employees to reward their loyalty.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

“It can be a simple product, as long as you put a twist on it.” Citing his application of the Subway model to pizza, he argues there is no need to invent a world-changing product (at 11:12 in the 2023 podcast); if starting again, he would choose a simple product, find a small location, start small, and grow once it works (at 12:37 in the 2025 street interview).⁠[6][7][7]

“Failure is feedback.” He sees money lost as the price paid for a lesson, which makes setbacks easier to deal with (at 13:10 in the 2023 podcast; at 11:33 in the 2025 street interview).⁠[6][6][7]

“You need a good product, you need to give it to customers with a good service, and you need to wrap it up with a good brand.” He believes that in any industry you must stand out from the competition and put your own spin on things, while finding a balance between quality and profit (at 35:22 and 15:52 in the 2023 podcast).⁠[6][6][6]

“If you’re going to share the responsibility, you need to share the reward as well.” He says the team is key to the company, and that it is unrealistic to expect people to give their effort without reward (at 55:54 in the 2023 podcast).⁠[6][6]

“Before you buy a course from someone, go online, check the person and their business, and see what they’ve actually done.” He cautions entrepreneurs to be careful about online courses sold on social media (at 1:15:51 in the 2023 podcast).⁠[6]

Fireaway Pizza: Official website: https://www.fireaway.co.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]

Personal website: https://www.marioaleppo.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]