Australia’s third largest pizza maker Eagle Boys Pizza has announced it will open one new store every 19 hours during the last days of the financial year.

Between 22 and 30 June 2009, Eagle Boys planned to open ten new stores across the company’s Standard, Micro, Local and Express store models, capping off 12 months of strong store growth and sales.

The new stores are located in Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia.

It comes as Eagle Boys expects to overtake Pizza Hut as the nation’s second biggest pizza chain within the next 12 months. The company said it was on track to have 400 stores operating by 2011.

Eagle Boys Pizza managing director Todd Clayton said a revamped pizza menu had helped spur double-digit year-on-year sales growth in recent weeks.

“In the current market, pizza has proven to be recession-proof,” he said.

“Today, Australian families are looking to feed the family without breaking the bank. They are eating out at restaurants less, but still want to enjoy a quality meal.”

“There are very few food retailers featuring quality menu options that will feed a family for under $20 like Eagle Boys can. Our pizzas are not only bigger than our competitors, but we also use better ingredients to make our pizzas and pizza lovers have started taking notice.”