This week, we travel to the village of Bretenoux in the Lot region to meet Nicolas Geneste, owner of the “Pizza Autentica” takeout pizzeria and two PizzaDoor vending machines by Adial.
Nicolas has been working in the restaurant business for 21 years. Five years ago, he decided to open a takeout pizza restaurant. He also specialized in the field by completing several training programs:
“I’m naturally very curious, and I always want to learn. I decided to specialize in pizza, so I took three courses with three well-known pizza experts. The first with Jean-Jacques Despaux, the Adial trainer, to learn the basics, the second with John Bergh to improve my technical skills, and the last one with Laurent Raimondo on dough fermentation methods and all the variations around pizza. I wanted to push my level as far as possible.”
What pushed Nicolas to get into pizza? His former boss…
“Before becoming the manager of a pizzeria and two vending machines, I was in charge of a creperie-pizzeria in Corrèze, and I had the chance to work for a very bad boss who couldn’t keep his staff, especially the pizzaiolos who left every year—a real disaster. Since I was in charge, I thought we had a menu and had to offer the products on it. So, I found myself making pizzas myself by necessity, and I got hooked. I can laugh about it now, but when you have to send out 150 pizzas and you’ve never done it before, it’s definitely not fun.”
The arrival of the vending machines didn’t change much for Nicolas:
“Commercially, the activity of my restaurant hasn’t decreased. It’s running as well, or even better, than before the vending machine arrived. It’s really an additional service that I didn’t offer before.”
One of Nicolas’s vending machines is installed on the facade of his takeout pizzeria. The pizzaiolo doesn’t even need to leave the shop to refill the machine:
“I’m located in a rural area, and it’s difficult to eat at any hour, especially late at night or even overnight. There are many factories with workers, and when they work the night shift, after eight hours of work, they’re hungry and come to order fresh pizzas from the vending machine.”
The second vending machine is located in Argentat, Corrèze, the town where Nicolas worked for about 15 years and where he lives today:
“In Argentat, I bought the location and the business from someone who had already installed an Adial vending machine. I replaced the old one with a new one because the old one didn’t have a touchscreen, and I preferred to start fresh with a new machine to have guarantees and avoid after-sales issues. Today, I’m very, very happy with it.”
What motivated Nicolas to launch? “At the time, I was 32 years old when I started in the pizza business, and even though I’m not a fan of technology, I think it’s essential to move with the times. I started to ask myself questions. I thought, there are factories nearby, and in the evening at 10 PM, I was ready to close but still kept receiving orders. It’s very frustrating to have to turn down customers who want to eat. The idea of pizza vending machines kept circling in my head, but not too much I was even somewhat resistant to it because I didn’t know how it worked.”
During a pizza competition, Nicolas met Laurent Maneyrol, then a sales manager at Adial (now responsible for the Southwest region):
“I spoke with him, and the connection was instant. I told him I had projects and was interested in pizza vending machines. He came to my place to do some tests with his oven. I had prepared pizza dough bases, and I even went as far as making dough bases that were older than what he recommended. I thought, if the result is good on dough that’s not optimal, then I’ll be convinced. We did the tests, and frankly, I was impressed, so I decided to go for it.”
Before working with Adial, Nicolas tried a competitor’s pizza vending machine, but the experience wasn’t great:
“Every day, I had a problem. It can happen; it’s mechanical and computerized, so there can be issues, but you need good customer service.”
Nicolas then contacted Laurent Maneyrol at Adial again:
“I wanted an Adial vending machine because they’re market leaders with 15 to 20 years of experience. I had my fears… What if it didn’t work? What if I disappointed people? What if I borrowed money to invest a significant sum and couldn’t pay it back, or worse, put my main business at risk? And even the fear of looking crazy by installing a vending machine in a town of 1,300 people that might not understand the idea.”
Still, Nicolas prepared his customers for the arrival of the vending machine:
“I didn’t want to raise suspicions, so I started doing a little survey, staying vague. I talked about bread vending machines, pizza vending machines, to see their reactions, and it was pretty divided: either they were for it, or they were against it. The people against it really just wanted to see us; they were waiting for human contact to know who was behind it and to see the preparation.”
Today, Nicolas still hears this kind of feedback:
“Some people want to see the preparation and the pizza coming out of the oven. They want to make sure it’s not frozen. There are still many questions about the vending machine. Since it’s installed on the facade of the pizzeria, some think it’s just a takeaway ordering kiosk like at McDonald’s.”
On the choice of locations, Nicolas thought it through carefully:
“I asked myself all the questions before installing it. I thought, if it doesn’t work here, I can always find another location. And if it really doesn’t work, I can sell it it’s just equipment. Laurent Maneyrol was very reassuring, telling me that based on the quality of my pizzas, he expected about 20 pizzas sold per day, which was very achievable. I was already very reassured, and since I switched to Adial, it’s been completely different. People come to me saying that, qualitatively, our machine is far superior to the old competitor’s machine, that it’s much faster, and even I notice, in terms of sales, it’s way above what I could have expected with the old machine. In the first month, it even generated more revenue than the pizzeria itself it had never happened before.”
The customer base of the Pizza Autentica vending machines is quite diverse:
“We can have people in the middle of the night who are hungry and grab a hot pizza from the machine to eat in the parking lot or their car. We can also have workers at noon ordering a hot pizza to eat right away. We get retirees or parents who come around noon or late afternoon to grab a cold pizza and heat it up at home in the evening. I get teens around 14 and people over 70. The only thing that might be a barrier is the touchscreen for some people who don’t know how to use it; it seems complicated to them, but once they try it, they don’t forget because it’s very easy.”
What are the strengths of Nicolas and the Pizza Autentica vending machines?
“The machine is rarely empty, and I use really good products. I use high-quality products on my pizzas. For some, I’ll use Spianata, an excellent and flavorful Italian chorizo. I could use regular chorizo, but I prefer to work with good ingredients. The mozzarella is ‘fior di latte,’ which has a lot of flavor and is delicious. I only use fresh products, and they are exactly the same as the ones I use in my pizzeria. I choose good products, so it’s more expensive, but I try to keep the prices fair without cheapening my pizzas. I respect my customers with both the prices and the quality.”
Nicolas communicates through Facebook and Instagram and also has an app, “Pizza Autentica,” where customers can check vending machine stock, view the pizzeria menu, and place orders via SMS.
Today, Nicolas is waiting to hear about other locations to install new vending machines while staying cautious about the future. We wish him continued success in making delicious pizzas and in his ventures!
We’d also like to update this article to warmly congratulate Nicolas for his recent title as World Pizza Champion, which he earned at the 20th Pizza World Cup in Rome Congratulations, Nicolas! A well-deserved title!!
