Founded in 2002, Adial quickly established itself as the world leader in pizza vending machines. After France, the company based in Calvados is trying its adventure abroad and diversifying with new panini and taco machines.
They swarm all over the territory. With more than 4,000 points of sale identified to date, France has become the leading market for pizza vending machines in the space of twenty years. Established both in cities and in rural areas, these machines, long shunned by consumers and restaurateurs, are now in the heyday of Adial, a Norman SME and world leader in the sector.
Based in Lisieux (Calvados), this company of 140 employees produced more than half of the distributors installed in France. Since 2019, more than 300 machines have left its workshops each year, ten times more than ten years ago.
Replace DVD Dispensers
There success story by Adial started in 2002. At the time, its founder, Max Petit, was interested in the spaces left vacant by DVD distributors who disappeared one after the other. The idea then came to him to develop a machine capable of providing fresh pre-cooked pizzas 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
But the company’s beginnings were timid. Over the first 12 years of activity, only 200 “PizzaDoors” were produced.
“We were still in an era where buying meals from a machine was sacrilege. Artisans also had difficulty with the idea of putting their pizzas in a machine,” underlines Vincent Le Gouic, president of Adial since 2015.
“But we were already the world leader, because it was a niche market,” quips this former Arcelormittal manager.
Over time, mentalities change: “We began to interest a certain number of restaurateurs who understood that these distributors were a way for them to develop their business without having to open another establishment,” remembers Vincent Le Gouic. In the mid-2010s, sales jumped and Adial’s turnover growth reached 50% per year.
At the same time, the teams of engineers and technicians are working to perfect their machines, particularly accelerating digitalization (100% touch machines, contactless payment, possibility of ordering online, etc.).
Above all, the company is pulling out all the stops to improve the quality of pizzas coming out of distributors by integrating new cooking supports and improving the performance of its ovens to attract more customers: “We have worked a lot on this system. Nothing works if the product is not qualitative”, indicates Vincent Le Gouic.
A success in rural areas
The years pass and Adial continues to grow. In 2020, the company is not really suffering from Covid. On the contrary, the Norman SME is exploding the meters with growth of 100% in 2021 and 2022, at the end of the pandemic.
“Covid was a catalyst, there was an accelerating effect,” observes Vincent Le Gouic.
It was during this period that those who had hesitated to acquire a “PizzaDoor” took the plunge, noting the success of those who were already operating one.
And for good reason, the boss of Adial assures that his product has many advantages for restaurateurs: “When you have a pizzeria that is doing well, either you open another restaurant, or you move to have a larger establishment”, he explains. Heavy procedures which represent a cost much higher than the investment in a distributor (around 50,000 euros).
Not to mention that this solution makes it possible to reach another clientele in rural areas where it is often difficult to operate a physical establishment: “This is the essential part of the success: the restaurateurs who have installed distributors in places where it is not “there was no catchment area to open a restaurant”, continues Vincent Le Gouic, further affirming that the installation of a pizza machine can improve “the living conditions of artisans”, who are more free to arrange the opening hours of their restaurants as they see fit, while continuing their activity.
Consumers also benefit, particularly in villages where local shops are few in number and “where delivery services do not exist”, recalls the manager. But success is also there in urban areas, particularly in supermarket parking lots.
International adventure
80% of Adial’s customers today are pizzerias. The others are restaurateurs, bakers, or even people in retraining who want to build up a fleet of “PizzaDoor”. The company, which claims that its most efficient machine is capable of generating a turnover of 500,000 euros, intervenes in the event of a breakdown but the cases are rare:
“We have extremely durable machines, there is relatively little maintenance. We have a machine which is 18 years old and which still works”, testifies Vincent Le Gouic.
Each of the distributors consists of a refrigerated zone in which the pizzas, prepared in advance and pre-cooked, are stored. When the consumer places an order, the chosen pizza is collected by the machine before being placed in the oven for two to three minutes and applying the cooking parameters that correspond to the type of pizza selected. Unless the customer chooses to collect their cold pizza if they wish to eat it later at home.
Thanks to this know-how, Adial now has a turnover of more than 40 million euros. Its machines are now exported all over the world: to Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mongolia, but also to North America where the SME has sealed distribution agreements and assembly by setting up a factory in Toronto, even if this expansion is still only at the “embryonic” stage with some 300 distributors established in around thirty countries, according to its president.
Germany, where Adial has decided to operate its machines itself, is a special case: there, “there are almost no pizzerias and those that exist are often run by Italians who do not don’t buy machines, that’s why we went there ourselves”, explains Vincent Le Gouic.
“The markets are different” from one country to another, he adds. Sometimes for cultural reasons. For example, it is impossible to envisage setting up on the other side of the Alps, in the land of pizza. As for the other markets where Adial exports, the success of distributors is not yet as flamboyant as in France.
“One of the mistakes is to consider that it would be the same elsewhere. But the pizza market in France is unique in the world. The main difference is that in France, 80% of pizzas are made by artisans. Anglo-Saxon countries, 80% of pizzas come from chains”, analyzes the boss of Adial, judging that “when there are no artisans, we have to change approach”.
Panini and taco vending machines
The chains, which have long considered that managing a fleet of distributors was not compatible with their business model, seem to be less and less resistant to it. Including in France where Domino’s Pizza turned to Adial after announcing last year the opening of around a hundred distributors to reach customers beyond its delivery areas.
Other brands could knock on Adial’s door as the company tries to diversify its business by offering panini and taco vending machines since 2022. “In a group, there is always someone who does not want to pizza. We tested the concept: when you put a panini machine next to a pizza machine, there are of course sales of paninis but it also increases sales of pizzas”, underlines Vincent Le Gouic.
The Norman company has also just developed dry and refrigerated lockers supplied with fresh local products intended for residents of the most remote areas: “In rural areas there are no local shops. If you want to eat local , you have to travel miles from one farm to another As small rural markets have almost disappeared, we said to ourselves that we were going to install ‘automatic market places'”, explains the president of Adial. says he wants to “take care of the forgotten”.
