The International Pizza Expo was an amazing three-day event. I attended it to find inspiration, discover the pizza tech landscape, and explore new concepts that could dramatically change the industry. While the last point was not so easy, I definitely found something interesting. Here are my brief notes about three companies that provide robotic pizza-making solutions.
Picnic
Picnic is a pizza prep station that can make up to 130 oven-ready pizzas in an hour with a single employee. The station delivers a consistent product and reduces expenses by minimizing food waste (to 2%) and optimizing labor costs (it only needs one person instead of three).
Picnic provides free delivery, installation, and on-site maintenance checks for the station, charging only a monthly subscription of $3,250 to $4,500, depending on included modules. The break-even point is 100 pizzas daily, meaning the station starts to benefit in terms of profit compared to standard mode.
Picnic provides free delivery, installation, and on-site maintenance checks for the station, charging only a monthly subscription of $3,250 to $4,500, depending on included modules. The break-even point is 100 pizzas daily, meaning the station starts to benefit in terms of profit compared to standard mode.
Smart Pizza
Smart Pizza is a standalone vending machine that can hold 96 par-baked pizzas. Once a pizza is ordered either through a 24" touchscreen or the Smart Pizza App, the pizza gets a final cook using one of the two hearth ovens before being boxed up and dispensed. The Smart Pizza is positioned in a premium segment and is developed to offer two pizzeria-like pies in three minutes. The system can handle 200 different types of pizza recipes and always offer a quality similar to a pizza served at a traditional Italian pizzeria.
The company is based in France and sells its Smart machines in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and the USA. The price is $95,000.
An example of a distributor's profitability in France: based on the cost price of the pizza at $2.10 and a selling price of $8.70, you can amortize vending machine cost in two and a half years selling 22 pizzas/day.
The company is based in France and sells its Smart machines in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and the USA. The price is $95,000.
An example of a distributor's profitability in France: based on the cost price of the pizza at $2.10 and a selling price of $8.70, you can amortize vending machine cost in two and a half years selling 22 pizzas/day.
Stellar Pizza
The concept is an automated truck that can make pizza almost autonomously, can be operated with only one driver, and can produce about 420 custom 12-inch pies before reloading.
The process begins when a crane grabs a ball of dough and places it onto a conveyor belt, which then begins pressing and kneading it to form a pizza shape. Sauce, cheese, and toppings are then added by a series of arms. The completed pies are then baked in one of four ovens, stacked into a tower at the end of the device, and output for a human worker to slice and place into a box for serving.
According to Crunchbase, Stellar Pizza has raised $25.5M in funding over two rounds. For now, two Stellar trucks work mainly in California around LA near the University of Southern California.
The process begins when a crane grabs a ball of dough and places it onto a conveyor belt, which then begins pressing and kneading it to form a pizza shape. Sauce, cheese, and toppings are then added by a series of arms. The completed pies are then baked in one of four ovens, stacked into a tower at the end of the device, and output for a human worker to slice and place into a box for serving.
According to Crunchbase, Stellar Pizza has raised $25.5M in funding over two rounds. For now, two Stellar trucks work mainly in California around LA near the University of Southern California.
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Foodtech - is my passion for the last 10 years. Being a founder of a food delivery marketplace, ghost kitchen chain, and q-commerce software company, I'm inspired by great ideas and innovations in this area. And I'm happy to share my thoughts and insights here in Foodtech.Live. All updates are available on my LinkedIn and Twitter. See you there!
