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"It's all infrared, so it comes out nice and crispy. I hate microwaved pizza," says Mark Kalugar of Innovative Vending, who helped bring the company to Michigan and handles distribution.Livonia startup makes hot pizza as easy as pie
Speedy meal targets on-the-go customers
WonderPizzaUSA plans to begin deploying its Italian-made vending machines this month.
The pizza machine
WonderPizzaUSA, which recently moved to Michigan, is making plans to deploy hundreds of pizza-making vending machines in what it hopes is a new national trend. Would you buy pizza from a vending machine?
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WonderPizzaUSA isn't another pie-in-the-sky new chain vying for a piece of Metro Detroit's ultra-competitive pizza market.
It has no stores, and there are no plans to build any. It doesn't try to lure customers with flavored crust, deep dish, or one-of-a-kind toppings.
Instead, it promises a hot, oven-baked pizza for about $5 in less than two minutes -- from a vending machine.
"This is a concept that flies under the radar," said chief operating officer Don Vlcek. "It's the only vending machine in the world that will serve a whole pizza, and it does it in 90 seconds with the convenience that people desire in their world today."
WonderPizzaUSA's uniqueness goes beyond the concept of self-serve pizza. Its founders moved from Massachusetts to Michigan to get the company started at a time when many businesses here are leaving or downsizing.
Vlcek sees Metro Detroit, home to several national pizza chains, as the best place for the company to begin.
"Our economy may be bad," he said, "but people have to eat."
Vlcek himself is one of the biggest indications of WonderPizzaUSA's potential. He spent 16 years as a top executive at Domino's Pizza, helping founder Tom Monaghan grow the chain from 168 stores to 5,200 within a decade.
If anyone can make a new pizza business prosper, it's Vlcek, said Dave Ostrander, an Oscoda-based consultant for the pizza industry and former restaurateur.
"I really respect Don Vlcek," Ostrander said. "He's a pioneer."
WonderPizzaUSA plans to begin deploying its Italian-made vending machines this month. Within three years, Vlcek envisions 3,000 machines at college dormitories, hospitals, airports, rest areas, athletic fields, office complexes, factories, malls and countless other locations across Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
Eventually, the company expects to have about a dozen employees at its headquarters in Livonia. The machines will be owned and maintained by various local vending companies.
The $18,000 machines are about twice the size of most vending machines and hold 102 refrigerated 9-inch pies made by Connie's Pizza in Chicago. Each one contains a Dell computer so the owner can remotely check inventory and a monitor and touchpad for customers to choose the type of pizza and the crispiness of the crust.
When a customer makes a selection, the machine removes the pizza from its packaging and slides it into a high-intensity oven before popping it onto a shelf in the front.
Company officials expect their biggest challenge to be convincing consumers accustomed to typical vending-machine fare that the pizzas are similar in quality to what restaurants serve and that they're baked, not microwaved.
"It's all infrared, so it comes out nice and crispy. I hate microwaved pizza," said Mark Kalugar of Innovative Vending, who helped bring the company to Michigan and handles distribution. "The normal mentality for people is to get something out of a vending machine and pop it in the microwave, so it tastes lousy."
Besides convenience, quality and taste will likely determine WonderPizzaUSA's success, said Steve Coomes, senior editor of PizzaMarketplace.com, a Louisville, Ky.-based online trade publication.
"The one strange thing about pizza is customer loyalty," Coomes said. "It certainly isn't going to compete with ready-to-eat pizzas or the grocery-store frozen pizzas."
Vlcek doesn't expect the company to take business away from Metro Detroit's many pizzerias, which include Domino's, Little Caesars, Hungry Howie's and dozens of others. WonderPizzaUSA's niche is locations where other hot foods aren't readily available. A sample vending machine already has been installed at DaimlerChrysler's Warren Truck Assembly Plant, where workers can't have food delivered and don't have time to go to nearby restaurants. For now, the machine is used as a demonstration model for prospective franchisees and investors.
"We're competing with Lays potato chips," Vlcek said. "I think we've got them beat."
You can reach Nick Bunkley at (313) 222-2293 or nbunkley@detnews.com.
Don Vlcek, who spent 16 years as a top executive at Domino's Pizza, sees Metro Detroit as the best place for WonderPizzaUSA to begin.
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