So you’re ready to add pizza? The old adage "you get what you pay for" definitely applies to the
products you use to make your pizza. There are as many places to buy your food products as there are
pizza restaurants. Choosing a supplier is one of the most important, if not the most important decision
you will make. The success or failure of your restaurant will depend upon the quality of your product.

Keep it simple. You can always start using semi-ready products to test the waters and move to
in-house production after you get the cash register ringing. A lot of the par-baked crusts are so
good in quality that you would be hard pushed to tell the difference between a fresh crust and
a par-baked frozen one. Get as many samples as you can from your supplier and test them out. The
ones that taste better to you will probably taste better to your customer.
As a simple example, I could buy par-baked crusts, a quality sauce and two or three toppings
from my local supplier and with a small electric oven and a small table top prep table for the
ingredients, I could be selling pizza. I am talking an investment of only $3-4k can get you on the
road to making pizzas.

Ok, so you want your pizza to stand out from the rest... how are we going to accomplish that?

1. You are going to plan your menu so you know what products to buy.
2. You are going to find a food supplier that has a wide variety of products/choices, cutting down
the need for many different distributors.
3. Do you want to be a big fish in a little pond?
     A. Work with smaller regional distributors that may charge a little more but can give you special
service, training and attention. They may also be able to give you multiple deliveries if your
space is limited.
     B. As you grow you will have more buying power and be able to negotiate better pricing.
4. Do you want to be a little fish in a big pond?
     A. Work with national food companies that may have better pricing but not as individualized
service.
     B. May have wider variety of products but not as likely to special order items for you.
     C. Less personalized one on one service.
5. You can research on the web about different types of food and suppliers. One of the best is:
http://www.foodsupplier.com/. At this website you can see a variety of different aspects of the
restaurant.
6. Check out magazines like National Restaurant Association’s weekly magazine, Pizza Today, PMQ
magazine, Advertising Journals. There are as many as you have time for.

In closing the most important step is to have a plan and build a system around it. People are the same, it
is the systems that they operate in that are different.

You need to have goals, a budget, and an idea of what you want to be and who your targeted market is.

Once you have made the decision to move ahead, contact people who have been there and done it
and learn from their experience and mistakes. Here at Pizzaovens.com we have sales people that have
designed, built, operated, moved, purchased and been involved in all aspects of the restaurant business from the ground up. DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS AND AVAIL YOURSELF OF THE HELP THAT IS ONLY A PHONE CALL AWAY.