Anyone in the PIZZA business??? Need info

dvdfan

Hi,

Was considering running a pizza delivery in the evenings starting soon. Already have a cafe running during the day so a kitchen etc is already in place in a central location in town and was hoping anyone in the industry from chef to delivery driver might be able to give me some info on the following as this is new to me!

Firstly i want to match four star pizza's prices and do plenty of specials etc and the vast majority of marketing will be door to door leaflets. The most important thing will be the pizza, getting a beautifully tasty base and tasty and fresh toppings.Anyway heres some of the things i need to know.

Is there a difference between an ordinary oven and a pizza oven?

How long does it take to cook a pizza from fresh?

What other essential equipment would i need for pizza making that i wouldnt already have in a traditional kitchen?

Whats the profit margin like and is waste high when dealing with fresh food and not frozen?

Is it hard to get delivery drivers and whats the best way to pay them, by the hour, by the hour + tips, by the hour plus x amount per delivery, by the hour and a percentage of the sales etc etc etc?

What about leafet delivery, is it hard to get honest people and would you offer commission or just a flat hourly rate or just pay by the amount of leaflets.

Would vistaprint.ie be the cheapest for the leaflet printing and what other marketing works well.

Is there any other info with regard to this type of business that would be useful information, what are the main obsticles etc

Other than buying the pizza oven assuming the ovens i have already arent suitable this would be the only outlay i would have and if this didnt take off it would not be a big deal, i already have the shop in place so im not paying any extra rent etc and if it did take off id probably open the shop and serve the pizzas in shop too but in the beginning ill just have someone on the phone, someone doing deliveries and someone cooking to keep the wages low until i see how it goes.

Im up against Dominoes and Four Star Pizza in my town but if the pizzas are nice (this is the key) then it should go well as word of mouth will pass. Will also be able to do side orders like Garlic Mushrooms, Chips, Onion Rings etc aswell and drinks.

So feel free to pm or reply and thanks

p.s mods i wasnt sure where to put this as if i put it in business i dont think ill get the response because delivery drivers, leaflet delivery drivers and chefs etc would be less likely to be visiting that forum, so i wanted to put in a general forum to get a better response but feel free to move it elsewhere if you think it would be more suitable

peepsbates

I worked delivering pizzas in waterford for a while, the way we worked was the driver would carry a float of his/her own of 50 euro and when the orders were phoned in, we would then pay the staff for the order and collect the money back off the customer.It saves messing around in the shop at busy times and got the driver out quicker for the next delivery.Thats about all i know about it, hope it helps;) good luck with the buisness btw

i forgot to add our wages were 5.00 per hour and 2.00 per order delivered, this was 2 years ago.From what i could tell pizzas took about 10 mins to cook in a brick oven, ill try get some more info for ya.

Binomate

Dominoes pay their drivers €5 an hour and €1 per pizza delivered. A huge part of their salary is tips. I think people in Cars get different amounts per pizza delivered than the bikers do. If it's a busy area, You'd have upwards of 40 drivers sometimes. It will probably be more hectic than running a café.

mdebets

I don't have any experience with the Pizza business but have one question for you: Are you Italian?

If not : stay out of the Pizza business.
It should be a criminal offence for any non-Italian to make and sell Pizzas. It must be something geneticaly, but all Pizzas I had that were not made by Italians were just not as good as the Italian ones.

Ruu_Old

This could go in a couple of forums actually so I'll leave it here for now and move it to Business/Economy/Finance when you wish. Good luck.

edit: Perhaps split up your questions, post the ones about cooking in Food/Drink, business related (money, cost, etc) in Business/Economy/Finance.

Hobbes

Why not do your research properly before committing to it. boards.ie members at best can offer suggestions. I certainly would NOT stake a business on anything mentioned in AH.

tails2

mdebets wrote:

I don't have any experience with the Pizza business but have one question for you: Are you Italian?

If not : stay out of the Pizza business.
It should be a criminal offence for any non-Italian to make and sell Pizzas. It must be something geneticaly, but all Pizzas I had that were not made by Italians were just not as good as the Italian ones.

despite popular belief.... pizza was not invented by italians. in fact alot of italian food was derived a looooooooooooong time ago from chinese foods but the italians couldnt do it properly and eventually those foods changed to what the italians could do. just thought you should know.:D

shane86

Pizza ovens are ridiciilously expensive afaik, i remember a local chipper telling us his new one cost close on 10 grand.

I thought the legal wage for adults was 8 odd quid regardless of tips or commission.

Idgeitman

In the Domino's where i worked was 7 minutes to make a pizza and cook it, drivers were on 4 euro an hour, plus 1.50 for each pizza they delivered.

In the kitchen you don't need anything special for cooking pizza's, just a large 1ft x 1ft scooper to take it out of the oven in one piece!,

If your looking for a visually appealing pizza, make sure all the toppings are evenly spread, and the cuttings are exact and you should be good to go,

Vista print may not be the cheapest option, shop around.

Remember you have two choices,

Cheap and Cheerful, or Expensive Quality, its really up to you to pick what route you want to go down.



~ Idgeitman

Nehpets

50% discount for all boards.ie members??

bombidol

try and get that pizza hut crispy base

BlitzKrieg

mdebets wrote:

I don't have any experience with the Pizza business but have one question for you: Are you Italian?

If not : stay out of the Pizza business.
It should be a criminal offence for any non-Italian to make and sell Pizzas. It must be something geneticaly, but all Pizzas I had that were not made by Italians were just not as good as the Italian ones.

Bull

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2799&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=50


Best pizza EVER!

Ruu_Old

Thick stuffed crust for me please OP, extra cheese.

weemcd

Tip: Mizonnis did a deadly trade in Jury's last week when we were down for *a gig* (fúckin rocked!), they had leaflets at the main desk, we phoned our order in, delivered in under a half an hour, weren't expensive and we gave a small tip too. Both nights, Tuesday being less busy there were a good few orders in, and on Wednesday night they were absolutely flat out with deliveries. Great pizza too btw.

If you could pick a few hotels (if there are any) locally and give them leaflets I'm sure you could make a mint!

dvdfan

Thanks for all the info so far, i have a large electric cooker/steamer that heats very quick that could hold possibly 10-12 12" pizzas at any one time and another gas cooker that could probably hold maybe 6-8 more. They should do for a start till i see how things go, shouldnt be a problem with this should there????

The main thing is trying out a few different types till i find the most delicious pizza. The idea about the hotel leaflets sounds like a good idea, there is one across the road but they have their own restaurant (as do most hotels) so i dont know if they would be too happy about this. Theres also a few more hotels around aswell that i could try.

Might drop in a few pizzas here and there to some of the surrounding pubs, nothing like a nice feed on a sunday after the match (with some leaflets of course) and what better place to get a bit of talk going about the new pizza place.

Also interesting about the drivers, didnt think it would be possible to offer them below the minimum wage although as long as there is enough dliveries theyd make enough but this might not be the case initially as it will take time to build

dvdfan

Hobbes wrote:

Why not do your research properly before committing to it. boards.ie members at best can offer suggestions. I certainly would NOT stake a business on anything mentioned in AH.

Its not a big commitment, if it doesent work out no harm and not a whole lot lost. Its a family business so well just all chip in to cover the extra hours so there would be very little cost. The cost of doing market research could prove just as expensive.

The main reason i came to boards is to get advice on how things are run and so far i have got some good replies so thanks everyone

Squall

I used to work in a four star pizza.

There can be quite alot of prep work involved in making pizzas depending on how much business your doing.

Making sauces, cutting veg etc. If it gets busy then you may need time during the day to get all this ready.... just a thought for the future and how this might affect your current day time business.

And one thing I noticed you didnt mention was a dough machine. Are you going to buy your dough from somewhere else or do you have some other method of making it?

Does your premises have a cold room for storing this dough? Normally once the dough is prepared it needs several hours in a cold room in order to proof or it may not rise properly.

In fourstar delivery drivers were paid by the hour and then per delivery as with Dominoes. They also received bonuses for certain numbers of delivery ie 10, 20 , 30 etc.

Food wastage was relatively high but I think that was down more to our shop being very busy (busiest and most profitable in Munster ). From what I remember it was somwhere in the region of 6 - 8%

If youd like to know anything specific feel free to PM and ill do my best.

cournioni

Reading this thread makes me hungry...

Dave!

dvdfan wrote:

Might drop in a few pizzas here and there to some of the surrounding pubs, nothing like a nice feed on a sunday after the match (with some leaflets of course) and what better place to get a bit of talk going about the new pizza place.

Now that's a good idea

Make sure they're your tastiest ones though, or else you might find everyone in the pub talking about how sh*te the new pizza place is! :eek:

But yeh, good idea, it would certainly win my heart!

dvdfan

Ruu wrote:

This could go in a couple of forums actually so I'll leave it here for now and move it to Business/Economy/Finance when you wish. Good luck.

edit: Perhaps split up your questions, post the ones about cooking in Food/Drink, business related (money, cost, etc) in Business/Economy/Finance.

Thanks everyone for the replies, you can move this to the business forum now. Cheers:D

Ruu_Old

No problem, moved from AH. Good luck.

weemcd

dvdfan wrote:

The idea about the hotel leaflets sounds like a good idea, there is one across the road but they have their own restaurant (as do most hotels) so i dont know if they would be too happy about this. Theres also a few more hotels around aswell that i could try.

Just remember it's doubtful they will serve people in the restaurant past say about 9 o clock, when piss heads (like us) get the munchies, your in the money!

Tha Gopher

mdebets wrote:

I don't have any experience with the Pizza business but have one question for you: Are you Italian?

If not : stay out of the Pizza business.
It should be a criminal offence for any non-Italian to make and sell Pizzas. It must be something geneticaly, but all Pizzas I had that were not made by Italians were just not as good as the Italian ones.

Thats funny you should say that, i was eating a pizza with an Italian bird the other night that was cooked by Pakistanis, and judging by the amount of mine she stole it must have been grand. God dammit, pizza quality doesnt depend on race, it depends on whether the place you buy it can be arsed getting the best quality ingredients. Ive had pretty mediocre pizzas from Italian chippers tbh.

Pizza Mia in Dunshaughlin is possibly the best in Ireland.

TheWaterboy

Our local chipper changed hands recently - the guy that took it over also started making pizzas...Asked all the customers what would they suggest he do as regards toppings, base etc. Seems to be doing fairly well. Doesnt offer delivery though

Another possible thing to note is the Pizza chain that the EasyJet recently owner set up. This is called Easypizza and offers no frills cheap pizza. Worth checking out

Good luck with it

Our man in Havana

peepsbates wrote:

I worked delivering pizzas in waterford for a while, the way we worked was the driver would carry a float of his/her own of 50 euro and when the orders were phoned in, we would then pay the staff for the order and collect the money back off the customer.It saves messing around in the shop at busy times and got the driver out quicker for the next delivery.Thats about all i know about it, hope it helps;) good luck with the buisness btw

i forgot to add our wages were 5.00 per hour and 2.00 per order delivered, this was 2 years ago.From what i could tell pizzas took about 10 mins to cook in a brick oven, ill try get some more info for ya.

What happens if the customer stiffs you for the money? Crank orders? You would be out a fair bit of money. How was that handled?

Skybird

Best of luck with it.
Let us know how you get on.

dvdfan

Bond-007 wrote:

What happens if the customer stiffs you for the money? Crank orders? You would be out a fair bit of money. How was that handled?

I actually worked in home delivery a few years back, not pizza's though and i think i got maybe 2-3 hoax deliveries in 18 months although ive heard stories where businesses have had alot of trouble with it.

Most of the hoax calls are actually easy to spot,they usually dont even think about what number theyre going to give and when you ask them they get a bit flustered and it becomes obvious theyre making up the number. A quick call back to that number after the call 'to double check directions' quickly shows its a hoax.

I remember one hoax call ordered movies from us and food from another company at the same time, they gave us a hoax number but the food company got there landline number from call register and traced their number to the house 2 doors away (dont know how they matched the landline to the address, maybe they were a previous customer?) and the driver was doing her nut banging on the door and ringing the cops, we were only delivering movies so no big loss their and so left it at that. Bit dumb using your landline to make a hoax call.

Back to leaflet delivery, does anyone have any experience of this, im woried someone will just dump half them, will be offering them a full time job. Whats the best method to pay them, by the hour, per leaflet, per leaflet + commission, per hour plus commission or completely commission based??

The Corinthian

tails2 wrote:

despite popular belief.... pizza was not invented by italians. in fact alot of italian food was derived a looooooooooooong time ago from chinese foods but the italians couldnt do it properly and eventually those foods changed to what the italians could do. just thought you should know.:D

Dreadful, clueless rubbish. Pizza was around in Italy long before there were Italians, what you’re doing is confusing it with pasta, which some historians believe was originally invented in China and other’s believe developed independently in both locations. Pizza is not historically Chinese, at worst it’s Greek.

Even if pasta was ‘learned’ from China and then ‘changed’, it hardly constitutes that it was not “done properly” - that’s simply a moronic assertion. As cuisines migrate they evolve and change; to suit their new culture and the ingredients available to them (let’s not forget all the European cuisine that uses maize, potatoes or tomatoes - none of which were available before the discovery of the Americas).

Pizza is no different and can broadly be divided into Italian and American. The former tends to have a thinner base than the latter (‘deep pan pizza’ is purely an American invention) and the toppings also tend to differ. Pineapple or sweet corn on a pizza would probably get you lynched in Italy, where you would more commonly find toppings such as anchovies or artichokes. Ultimately it depends on your local market.

Tha Gopher wrote:

Ive had pretty mediocre pizzas from Italian chippers tbh.

That’s because they’re low quality, dirt cheap and often frozen, pizzas. What are you seriously expecting? A home cooked meal? You think Italian’s eat all their food deep fat fried or that a cheeseburger and chips is a traditional Tuscan dish?

You’re not in a chipper to eat haut cuisine; you’re there for soakage.

ronbyrne2005

One bit of advice i would give is make these pizzas nicer than anyone else in your town, this i think you need a wood fired stone oven pizza,very hard to find places in dublin selling these pizzas with their unique taste,also use the best quality ingredients and advertise this fact. Consider getting a pizza chef in with experience with wood stone ovens.all the big pizza companies produce crap pizza IMO

antoinolachtnai

You probably need to decide at some stage whether :

- you are going to compete on price

- you are going to compete on quality

- you are going to compete on service

In general terms, competing across all these areas is pretty difficult.

You really need the IT support to run a good delivery place. Also, you also need drivers with good knowledge of the streets - this is difficult, because Irish addresses aren't particularly clear.

I wouldn't recommend delivering pizzas to pubs unless the owners said in advance that it was ok.

I would say that this business is going to cost a bit to get into. You should put together a simple business plan for it.