How to open a take away pizzeria (In Italy)

It is hardly news that, especially in times of financial crisis, to think creatively about how to start a business is a serious, profitable and fruitful project to fight the economic slowdown and to invest savings starting your desired self-employment activity.

Nowadays one of the sectors which is proving to be successfull and that is always increasing its popularity is the Catering: with a few tips and with a good understanding of the tricks of the trade, we will be able to open a business that will be appreciated both from young people and adults: a take-away pizzeria, convenient in its services, easy to call and to find on the Web and, above all, it is a valid alternative for all our future customers.

Bureaucracy

The bureaucracy procedure that you need to know before opening a take-away pizzeria could seem complex, however following the steps listed below, you will have a more accurate and clear overview. First of all, starting this kind of business, the initial variable and fixed costs will be lower compared with those of a traditional pizzeria. Being a place dedicated to food preparation, it will be necessary to obtain a specific sanitary authorization, which is usually released by the ASL of the municipality of residence. The next step will be to obtain a municipal certification related to the preparation and trade of food and drinks. Normally, in order to achieve this authorization, it is possible to obtain a professional qualification issued by the Region; or it can be demonstrated a previous activity of at least 2 years in the catering sector; or it can be proved an attendance certificate at a professional school, which is often a culinary school.

After these steps, it will be necessary to hand out the Single Communication including the data related to the start up of the commercial activity of your pizzeria. This procedure will include the data for the Companies Register (in fact it will be sent to the related office at the Chamber of Commerce), INPS and INAIL. Then, there will be the compilation of the “Certified Declaration of Business Start up” to be sent electronically, and the HACCP Certification, related to the quantity and safety of materials.

Strategic location of the business of Take away pizzeria

It is crucial to locate our take-away pizzeria in particularly desirable areas with an easy access to the public. Generally, there is a tendency to consider some factors like the distance from the main traffic arteries to be used for the deliveries, as well as the journey times. The owner will have to evaluate the turnout of vehicles and he/she shall look for a good compromise with accessibility, even in small towns with few residents, because it could be a significant benefit having other competitors in the same area. In order to beat the competitors it could also be important to choose places next to other businesses of different kind, so that the pizzeria will advertise by itself thanks to the strategic position.

Opening a take away pizzeria: the costs

Another important information about how to open a take-away pizzeria, is about the costs that you will have to deal with. Based on the quality of your service, you will have to support some fixed costs, concerning the equipment, and some variable costs that will vary during the work activity.  In the first costs we will find equipment like oven, furnishing, kneaders, staff. Normally, especially when you buy used but good quality equipment, the cost for your business will not exceed 9000/10000 Euros, together with the cost for a good kitchenette of about 2500 Euros and the cost for the cold storage which should be around 1500 Euros. In the variable costs we will consider those costs due to the preparation of pizzas, which are very often required with toppings. For these pizzas we will calculate a cost of about six Euros and, considering one week, we will have to sell about 50/60 pizzas per day to ensure our business growth.

Then, we have to consider the expenses involved for the power supply (about 300 Euros) and the salary for a salesperson or for a pizza chef (about 1000/1200 Euros); in this way we will have the possibility to estimate the actual costs for the maintainance of a take-away pizzeria.

Business advertising promotion

Talking about how to open a take-away pizzeria it is essential to quantify the need of an advertising promotion and the localization of the publicity events, in order to have a wider range of customers. It is no secret that most commercial businesses are promoted on the internet; in fact, with a cost of about 1200/1500 Euros, it will be possible to have a professional web site studied by a web designer that will help you to grow your business.

Then we have to consider Google Adsense listings or eventual advertising space on affiliate blogs, or the release of promotional material usually in the way of hats, t-shirts or flyers to be distributed in the main attraction places of the town. Furthermore, it is good practise to involve in our dissemination activities even other commercial businesses that could be interested in future cooperations with our sector. For example, the leafleting at bars, restaurants, ice-cream shops, discoteques or clubs for young people, might be strategic locations to spread and promote our new pizzeria, eventually extending over time this promotion based on the results and the need of expanding the consumers catchment area.

Business’ earnings

At this point you want to know how much you would effectively earn with your take-away pizzeria. The earnings in this kind of pizzerias are usually higher compared with those of traditional pizzerias. The expected earnings for each pizza is around 5 Euros starting from the classic Margherita, up to 8 Euros for the most elaborated pizzas. Of course, those earnings have to be multiplied by the number of pizzas that we plan to sell, normally about 350/400 pizzas per week, for a monthly amount of 11000/12000 Euros. Once deducted the necessary expenditures, including power supply, salaries and eventual rents, advertising and purchase of goods, our earnings will be of about 3000 Euros per month, in the case of a medium level pizzeria.

Conclusions

The instruments that we gave you are surely crucial for understanding how to open a take-away pizzeria, a kind of business which is really appreciated by dynamic and enterprising people who want to create their own solution for coming out from the financial crisis.