This pizza delivery comes in three minutes.
A new pizza vending machine will be operational on the University of Guelph campus on Aug. 31.
Guelph couple Lesley Bell and Mark Hurson have no prior restaurant experience, but there is none needed for an automated machine doing everything for you.
It was a year in the making to bring the PizzaForno to Guelph. The machine will be located beside the Gryphon Centre arena.
Bell met PizzaForno employees one evening at a restaurant back in 2021 when she was out celebrating a friend’s birthday. They explained what PizzaForno was and Bell told Hurson about it when she got home. They were in and wanted to own one of these machines.
PizzaForno was founded by Canadian entrepreneurs William Moyer and Les Tomlin in 2018.
During the summer of last year Bell and Hurson were on vacation in Portugal and saw a variety of automated machines vending food from ice cream, burgers, fries and pizza.
“And we were just amazed by how many people were lining up and buying it,” said Hurson.
“It was a situation where we just saw enormous potential because a lot of the problems with with running a restaurant and having takeout is very expensive to maintain staffing,” he said.
“This is perfect timing, to be honest, because like I said, there's such a buzz around here. You've got so many people coming and going. And it's going to be ready for when school starts,” said Bell.
“There's a lot of hockey families that are here, they're stuck with their kids, and there's nothing really to eat. So it seemed like a really natural solution to go downstairs and grab a pizza with that machine,” said Hurson.
The machine holds up to 70 pizzas in a refrigeration unit, with seven different kinds of pizzas, and is open 24/7.
The pizzas are 12 inches and cost between $9 and $14.
When customers order a pizza it takes three minutes to be warmed up and ready to eat.
The pizza isn’t cut up into slices but customers are provided with a knife and napkins.
The first time Bell and Hurson tried the pizza was near their cottage in Muskoka. The Hawaiian pizza was one of their favourites.
Bell and Hurson don’t have to be at the location because it runs itself. PizzaForno restocks the pizza throughout the week. Owners can see their inventory through an app on their phone and check the cameras to see if the machine has any issues.
“Well, I mean, I think the initial interest is it's kind of a new technology, right?” said Hurson.
“So we're hoping that they come back they will try it. They find it convenient, find it tasty and they want to come back again and have more,” he said.
