Companies that make frozen pizzas are opting for automation to keep up with the demand for frozen pizzas. With automation, you have a lot of control regarding the design of your pizzas without sacrificing consistency and quality. Almost every part of the frozen pizza production process, including the pizza sauce application, can be automated. But how can automating pizza sauce applications transform the pizza industry? What type of innovative solutions for pizza sauce application is available for your frozen pizza company? How does automation affect your bottom line, such as labor and production costs? We’ll answer these questions and more so that you can see how automation can simplify your business and increase your profits. But first, let’s look at the pizza market and why the demand for frozen pizza is increasing.
Getting a Slice of the Pizza Market
Over these past few years, the demand for frozen pizza has noticeably increased, and the pizza continues to grow. Frozen pizza sales reached 4.98 billion dollars in 2019. In 2020, frozen pizza sales reached 5.47 billion dollars in sales, and in 2021, frozen pizza sales reached 6.06 billion dollars. Consumers depend on frozen pizzas for nutrition, accessibility, ease, and convenience.
As consumers get busier and eating at restaurants gets more expensive, they rely on frozen pizza for a tasty meal that they don’t have to expend much energy to prepare or spend too much money to access. They can count on trusted frozen pizza brands for a great yet simple dinner or snack. With this increase in demand in the pizza market, frozen pizza companies and pizza franchises are looking to automate their pizza production process. Automation increases production to meet the pizza market’s demand and ensures consistency and quality across each product so that consumers can expect high-quality frozen pizzas every time.
Automating and Pizza Franchises
Pizza franchises such as a few big-name pizza brands make frozen pizza to reach customers outside the restaurant setting. Some pizza franchises with brick-and-mortar restaurants also make frozen pizzas to reach customers who usually don’t have time to eat in a restaurant. Some popular grocery store chains produce frozen pizza under their brand to compete with brand-name pizza franchises. Regardless of the type of pizza company, whether frozen pizza is its primary product or another one they offer, modern pizza companies often rely on automation to keep up with the demand for frozen pizzas. To simplify and streamline the frozen pizza production process, companies look for new ways to make the process easier and less costly, including innovative solutions for pizza sauce application. While you can virtually automate almost every step of the production process, such as cheese application or pepperoni slicing, pizza sauce application is often the first step.
Pizza Sauce Application and Automation
With so much competition in the frozen pizza industry, making your frozen pizza unique and identifiable in the market is essential. Automation can give you this control over how your frozen pizza looks and tastes, mainly because of different equipment types. Automation makes the production process more manageable while controlling quality, consistency, and brand guidelines. Let’s discuss some innovative solutions for pizza sauce application, including different sauce application types and efficiency.
Waterfall Versus Targeted Application
Innovative solutions for pizza sauce application start with choosing between waterfall and targeted application methods. After cardboard circles or rectangles with the crust are placed on the assembly line, they are ready for sauce application. Your company can choose between a waterfall or a targeted applicator, depending on what you’re looking for. As the name suggests, waterfall applicators pour the sauce over the crusts as they pass under the applicator on the conveyor belts. The excess sauce that doesn’t make it onto a pizza is collected and reused to save resources and money.
On the other hand, you can design a targeted application to apply the exact amount of sauce you would like on your product. The targeted application saves on resources because you only use the sauce needed per pizza. Targeted sauce application also allows you to choose where on the pizza you’d like the sauce, which is helpful when you want visible crust around the edge of the pizza, unlike waterfall applicators.
Increased Efficiency
When you automate your pizza production process, you’re also increasing your company’s productivity. Automation enables your company to produce up to hundreds of pizzas per minute, depending on your automated setup and equipment. With an automated production line, you don’t have to worry about subpar products, which can lead to wasted time, money, and materials. You can also choose multi-lane conveyors for optimal productivity when you design your automated process. Automating your production process starts with innovative solutions for pizza sauce application, which can increase your company’s overall efficiency.
Another benefit of automating your pizza production process is alleviating labor costs. Labor costs can be the most expensive part of running a business, often cutting into profits. Automating can improve the quality of your products and save your bottom line.
Alleviating Labor Costs
Automating your frozen pizza production line requires minimal staffing to oversee the process. This allows your company to save on labor costs and have more control over the quality and consistency of your products. Employees can be widely variable, but automation ensures that the job is done right every time.
Automation With Quantum
Quantum Technical Services is the leading source of industrial frozen pizza production equipment. Many types of equipment are available to streamline your frozen pizza production process, including different pizza sauce applicators. At Quantum, we make beautiful frozen pizzas possible with a simplified approach to automation.