Instant pizza in 90 seconds from a vending machine

Piz Top targets universities, malls,
hospitals, petrol stations, and events

Instant pizza, piping hot from a vending machine, is now available on the local market at three locations in Beirut and Mount Lebanon from the local agents for the Italian machine, Piz Top Lebanon.

“This is an Italian pizza. The ingredients are imported but the pizza is put together locally. No pizza inside the machine is older than two or three days,” said Elie Abou Khalil, general manager of Piz Top Lebanon.

The company has six vending machines to date. The machine consists of two freezers that can hold up to 42 frozen, pre-assembled pizzas. A conveyor belt takes each pie to be baked in 90 seconds in a built-in oven. The pizza is then cut and placed in a cardboard box all inside the machine and it comes out from the front dispenser ready to eat.

Piz Top vending machines are available at three Medco petrol stations in Jal el Dib, Hazmieh, and Down Town Beirut. “We are agents for the machine for Beirut and Mount Lebanon and we are currently focusing on major malls, universities, hospitals, and events,” said Abou Khalil. He said the company is still in the testing period for the machines. The company was set up only four months ago.

“We haven’t done the marketing yet,” Abou Khalil said, but they have received a number of inquiries. To install more machines, the company can either rent the space for the machine, or set up machines on a concessionary basis, like they have done at petrol stations. These stations host the machines on their premises and get a percentage of each pizza sold.

Each machine can carry two types of pizza and toppings, each pizza is priced LL10,000. The machine accepts currency notes.

Reported by Hani Bathiche