[vendtalk] Made-From-Scratch Italian Pizza Vending Machine Heads To U.S.

[Vandervoort's]

Issue Date: Vol. 52, No. 7, July 2012, Posted On: 6/19/2012 

Made-From-Scratch Italian Pizza Vending Machine Heads To U.S.
Emily Jed Emily at vendingtimes.net 

Italy's Let's Pizza vending machine has been churning out fresh-made pies at
the push of a button in Europe for the past three years, and is now coming
to America.

A1 Concepts, the machine's Netherlands-based distributor, plans to deploy
its first U.S. machine in Atlanta later this year and has forecast rapid
expansion after that. Malls, airports, hospitals, hotels, universities and
rest stops are among the sites A1 Concepts is targeting.

Introduced in Italy in 2009, the bright red vender makes dough from scratch
for each pie by combining a prepackaged flour mix and separate bag. The
machine kneads the mixture and rolls it out to form a crust about 10.5" in
diameter. It then applies the sauce and layers on the selected toppings.
Patrons can choose from four varieties, including pepperoni, ham and bacon.
The optional toppings are stored in individually vacuum-sealed pouches.
Following the precooked assembly, the pizza is baked in an infrared oven and
delivered in two and half a minutes in a cardboard box.

The machine, which can hold ingredients for 200 pizzas, connects to the
Internet to keep track of inventory and to enable cashless payments. The
suggested retail price of a Let's Pizza vend product is $5.95, but machines
in certain locations, like theme parks, could charge more.