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After moving from the desert city of Abu Dhabi, the Frencken family has taken over Warkworth Pizza Company on Neville Street.
Originally from South Africa, the Frencken’s first moved to New Zealand 20 years ago, settling in Queenstown. But eight years ago, Wim, the father of the family, moved to Abu Dhabi to work as a consulting engineer.
Dominic, the youngest in the family, finished high school in Abu Dhabi before working as an events manager, while mother, Anita, started teaching English and maths to intellectually challenged children.
“It’s a very conservative culture, but it’s not as extreme as a lot people think,” Dominic says.
Adrian, his older brother, studied in Auckland and has been working as a freelance cameraman and director of photography for commercials, music videos and TV shows.
Earlier this year, the family started looking at going into business together so they could be reunited in NZ.
“We’ve done so much travelling together we’ve become dependent on each other. It’s made us a very close family,” Anita says.
Throughout it all, pizza has been a staple for the family, so when the chance to buy a pizzeria came up they jumped at it. Despite having no hospitality experience, they aren’t daunted by the challenge.
“We have a history of plunging into things. If we want to do something, we will give it a go,” Dominic says.
They want to refine the focus of the restaurant, tweaking the range of pizzas, pastas, sandwiches and soups that the business has sold for the past three decades.
“We want to turn it into more of a traditional Italian pizzeria,” Dominic says.
The pizza dough is handmade on site and the pizzas are made with local ingredients, cooked in a stone pizza oven.
The family is living in Auckland but plan to move to Mahurangi in the near future. Wim is still in Abu Dhabi but will return to NZ shortly.
