One slice of pizza?

Sea_Shell

James_Green_1982 wrote: »

Don't let your local council hear you say that!
They seem to be quite against more fast food outlets at the moment.
But I didn't see any obese people at these one-slice pizza places in Europe. So maybe it actually means people eat less?

Actually pizza is a rare treat in our house. Dr Oetker is our pizza of choice, very rarely eat out. But, if I'm having pizza, I want a whole one!!!

00ec25

James_Green_1982 wrote: »

It seems to be about more customers spending less.

this is a consumer money saving website
the total amount spent has nothing whatsoever to do with the unit cost per slice

as I said, very expensive way to buy pizza for a consumer, and therefore the intelligent customer won't. Hence your reliance on drunks

coffeehound

00ec25 wrote: »

as I said, very expensive way to buy pizza for a consumer, and therefore the intelligent customer won't. Hence your reliance on drunks

The high streets and shopping malls have loads of restaurants and pubs choc-full with sober people spending £10/20/30 and more for a casual meal. A £1 or so for a convenient slice of pizza is hardly a fool’s purchase.

lincroft1710

antrobus wrote: »

It's very common in the USA.

The opening scenes of "Saturday Night Fever" come to mind with John Travolta strutting through the streets of NYC back to the paint store and stopping for a slice of pizza..

p00hsticks

coffeehound wrote: »

The high streets and shopping malls have loads of restaurants and pubs choc-full with sober people spending £10/20/30 and more for a casual meal. A £1 or so for a convenient slice of pizza is hardly a fool’s purchase.

They also have shops such Greggs, Cooplands, Upper Crust etc that already sell single slices of pizza ready-to-go.

So the OP would have some competition during the day - the late night city centre crowd (outside of London) may be where there is a gap, but as I said before it may be more hassle than it;s worth given the drunken yob culture we have in this country.

sparkermarketing

Pizza is cheap to make, so the margins are good - but at £1 per slice you would need to sell huge volumes to make a decent business. Say you make £0.80 profit margin per slice

Minimum wage is £9 now (or thereabouts), and you probably need 2 people working - so you need to sell 23 slices an hour just to cover the hourly staff costs, then you have to take into account national insurance/pension contributions, corporation tax, rent (high in high footfall areas), insurance utilities, security etc.....

You would need to sell hundreds of slices every single hour to make a decent business out of it.

Low staff costs in Poland make it a more viable business over there, I guess.

James_Green_1982

p00hsticks wrote: »

They also have shops such Greggs, Cooplands, Upper Crust etc that already sell single slices of pizza ready-to-go.

So the OP would have some competition during the day - the late night city centre crowd (outside of London) may be where there is a gap, but as I said before it may be more hassle than it;s worth given the drunken yob culture we have in this country.

The places I mention in Europe were only open late at night. I didn't see any drunk people in them. Most of the customers were aged 20-35 and dressed as if they had been out socialising (rather than shift workers).

James_Green_1982

sparkermarketing wrote: »

Pizza is cheap to make, so the margins are good - but at £1 per slice you would need to sell huge volumes to make a decent business. Say you make £0.80 profit margin per slice

Minimum wage is £9 now (or thereabouts), and you probably need 2 people working - so you need to sell 23 slices an hour just to cover the hourly staff costs, then you have to take into account national insurance/pension contributions, corporation tax, rent (high in high footfall areas), insurance utilities, security etc.....

You would need to sell hundreds of slices every single hour to make a decent business out of it.

Low staff costs in Poland make it a more viable business over there, I guess.

The places I refer to in Europe made cut about 8 slices per pizza. So Equivalent to 8 Euros for a large pizza. Cheap by UK standards. UK large pizzas are more than that (£10-20) so equivalent price in UK would be £2 per slice.

The premises were smaller than usual take-away here. I'd say standing room for 4-6 customers. No seats or tables. I have never seen premises so small in the UK. When I visited, I'd estimate they were selling a large pizza (ie 8 slices) every 3-5 minutes. So 8x12 = 104 slices (ie 104 Euros) an hour.

I'd say the major factor in their business was that there was no-where else open at that time. Certainly not on the High Streets they were in. Some towns had McDonalds not far. But I'd say location was key.

I guess one factor here (and maybe elsewhere) could be the bureaucracy load on the business. I've never run a small business, but I'd guess that the bureaucracy for such a small business would be similar to a larger take-away (open all day etc). So for the very small pizza place, the bureaucracy load would be disproportionately high?

Savvy_Sue

You may well be right about the bureaucracy, but also going right back to part of your original post ...

James_Green_1982 wrote: »

I was discussing this with a relative, who is interested in starting a small business.

What's this relative passionate about? If it's not pizza, this is not the best thing for them. Do they have any catering experience? If not, this is not the best thing for them.

James_Green_1982

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You may well be right about the bureaucracy, but also going right back to part of your original post ...What's this relative passionate about? If it's not pizza, this is not the best thing for them. Do they have any catering experience? If not, this is not the best thing for them.

He does have some relevant experience.
But I think the main problems with making this business model work in the UK would be:

1. Lack of small, cheap, well located premises.
2. Lack of definite footfall customers.