Not content with spreading the word of HELL in their stores across the country, the boys behind the iconic pizza brand made a move into the frozen goods section of supermarkets. The team spoke to Stu McCullin about the devilish new venture.
What is your company background, how did you start the business?
“BAKED Pizza was started in January 2016 in Wellington. We firstly established a test kitchen to test the local market for 6-9 months in around 20 supermarkets locally. After successfully building a customer base in Wellington who loved our product we then moved the test kitchen and built a larger factory which tripled our capacity and has more room to grow.”
“The owners of the business are Callum Davies, myself and Jason Buckley. Callum and I founded the kiwi (in)famous brand HELL Pizza. They have been in the pizza game for over 20 years building a nationwide network of 69 franchised pizza stores with innovative menus, promotions and quality gourmet free-range ingredient. All with an evil twist!”
“Jason is the Marketing Manager for HELL pizza who came on board as a equal shareholder in BAKED for this new (ad)venture.”
What is the current product range and variants and how do these products stand out in the market?
“There is a huge hole in the frozen pizza market for a quality frozen pizza, which is why we created BAKED. Put simply BAKED is quality honest food and packaging. We don’t hide behind pretty pictures of pizza but instead have a open window on the front of our packaging so customers can see what they are buying. For years the frozen pizza segment has been a race to the bottom in price and quality – BAKED has created a tasty ethical product for a great price.”
“Our pizza is NOT par baked like all the other manufacturers – but instead frozen fresh at the dough proofing stage, so it will ‘brown up’ and rise in your oven and be as close to fresh as a frozen pizza can be!”
“We use Free-range meats on all our pizzas which taste just as good as they make you feel. Ethics in eating is the new black and BAKED delivers on this promise. Our pizza has a hand rolled crust – so it actually looks like a traditional pizza and not a dough disk with sprayed on ingredients. We hand make each pizza.”
“We use 100% mozzarella on our pizza. Cheese stretch when you eat pizza is king – just ask Fonterra. Our competitors mostly use a cheese blend to keep the cost down. We prefer to focus on taste first. Show me a kid that doesn’t like cheesy goodness.”
What are the plans for the business moving forward, is there any expansion on the horizon?
“To grow market share in New Zealand and change kiwi shoppers perception of frozen pizza. No one has ever eaten our pizza and said they prefer the competition. Once they eat BAKED they never go back and become raving fans.”
Where are your products currently available to buy, and are you looking at or wanting to expand your availability?
“Currently we are in most Foodstuffs stores nationwide, Four Square, New World and Pak N Save. Our product is available through the Foodstuffs DC. We are also stocked in Fresh Choice and Supervalue stores.”
