Donatos has built a reputation on quality and openness to innovation, dating back to its founding in 1963. That mindset of combining food and technology set the brand up to embrace its latest bold move: a fully autonomous pizza-making hub.
Donatos partnered with Appetronix to debut an automated pizza making machine at John Glenn Columbus International Airport. The vending-style unit operates 24/7, cooking fresh, customizable pizzas in real-time using robotics and AI.
“The entire process as of today takes under five minutes for the first pizza. After that, one every two and a half minutes,” said Nipun Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Appetronix.
Once an order is placed, the machine uses dispensing conveyors and robotic arms to add cheese and toppings, cook the pizza, and alert the customer when it’s ready. Human oversight is minimal. Staff are notified when it needs tasks like refilling ingredients or maintenance.
When the pizza is ready, the customer gets a code to unlock a heated locker and retrieve the order.
The system can even predict demand.
“You can estimate x number of flights are landing, x number of people are going to be walking by the machine… so let’s start the cooking process so by the time people come in front, the food is already ready,” explained Sharma.
Donatos partnered with Appetronix to debut an automated pizza making machine at John Glenn Columbus International Airport
The goal isn’t just speed, it’s quality. And that’s especially important given the location.
“We’re opening in their hometown. That’s been around for 60 years and people have an expectation, and we have to make sure we deliver on that expectation,” said Sharma.
Sharma explained the model is designed for high-demand, low-labor settings.
“If you can deliver on that promise, you not only make everybody’s headaches go down, but you have something that’s more profitable because you’re using automation and cutting a lot of the expenses, not just with labor, but also the real estate,” he said.
Tackling labor woes
Sharma, who spent more than two decades in the restaurant industry, said the motivation for creating Appetronix stemmed from labor shortages.
“I’ve shut down restaurants in many cities and countries because of labor problems,” he said, adding that the issue is especially challenging to restaurants with 24-hour operations.
While the airport hub with Appetronix is Donatos’ first fully autonomous location, more are in the works.
“It’s a fantastic way to get the consumer a very high-quality, great tasting, freshly made pizza in an airport, shopping mall, office building, amusement park,” said Kevin King, CEO and president of Donatos.
“One of the things that really excites us about automation isn’t about replacing people, it’s about improving consistency. We look at automation as how do we take repetitive tasks that machines can do, so that our people can be focused on serving the guests in a very human way, in a way that machines can’t,” said King.
That balance is something Donatos continues to explore in its brick-and-mortar restaurants. Jim Grote, who founded the brand in 1963, later created the Grote Company to focus on automation in food production. From there, he launched Agape Automation to develop machines specifically for restaurants.
“Automation is already present in existing brick-and-mortar restaurants,” King said. “We have a smart saucer machine that can automatically sauce pizzas in seven seconds. We are also looking at a variation of a machine for slicing pepperoni directly from the stick right onto the pizza.”
Pizza automation is increasingly gaining popularity and traction. Several other companies like Pizza Forno, Piestro, and Let’s Pizza have also launched similar vending technology, focused on getting consumers pies on the fly.
