All those things add up to super fast, super convenient, super quick serve.
COVID, the labor shortage, people don't want to spend 10 minutes waiting for anything. “I mean look at PizzaForno- the technology has been around France for the better part of 10 years. “I think North America has been very late to the game on robotic food,” Tomlin says.
There’s already commitments for 200 locations between Southern California, Louisiana, and Florida. In the past six months, the industry veterans finalized their go-to-market strategy in the U.S., and have eyes on major national licensee deals across the southern part of the country. There are now roughly 40 kiosks in North America, including five units in Michigan. Tomlin is president of the company while Moyer is CEO.Īfter successfully launching in test markets around Toronto, Tomlin and Moyer began expanding throughout Canada via licensing deals with independent operators. The two obtained North American rights and returned to Canada with some of Le Gouic’s culinary team to formulate recipes and push through eight months of research and development, including creation of the PizzaForno branding. “If we were to take this technology and build a brand around it, we could totally disrupt the pizza business globally.” “At that exact moment, we had this sort of ‘aha’ entrepreneurial moment where it's like, wow,” Tomlin says. they walked up to an automated pizza machine and saw an 85-year-old woman buying two pizzas. Tomlin and Moyer flew to France and drove about an hour north of Paris and found themselves in a town of roughly 1,500 people. Over the course of roughly six or seven years, he sold about 700 kiosks as a white-label solution for mom-and-pop stores needing an additional revenue source. Three and a half years ago, he and Moyer engaged with French businessman Vincent Le Gouic, who wanted to export his automated pizza-making technology to the U.S. Despite the lofty goal, there was a time when Tomlin was more on the side of skepticism. The duo plans to fill North America with 20,000 fully automated PizzaForno kiosks by 2026, including 1,000 in the U.S. Whether they use this opportunity to visit family they weren’t able to see during the pandemic or to take their kids on a fun trip after a stressful year or just get away and simply relax, UNO hopes their employees will use this time to create new, fond memories.Partners Les Tomlin and Will Moyer are betting big on the future of robotics. Additionally, UNO has awarded $50 vouchers to vaccinated employees and plans to continue this support as more employees are vaccinated.Īfter over a year of uncertainty, UNO is happy to help their employees take some rest that they deserve. Within only a few days of the service operating, UNO helped 87% of its employees secure an appointment.
Earlier this year, UNO made headlines when it announced a bilingual vaccine concierge service, which assisted eligible employees in navigating the process of booking a vaccine appointment. Taking care of and celebrating its employees’ hard work is a company priority. Other manager-level employees at the restaurant level will receive travel vouchers and additional rewards. General Managers must travel by the end of December and the company is encouraging employees to post pictures of their travels on its internal social media site. “From working around various operational issues and staffing shortages to keeping restaurants COVID safe among the ever-changing health standards, we figured what better way to thank them but to offer them an experience-based bonus?” “We really wanted to acknowledge and reward our hardworking restaurant management staff for their contributions during these challenging times,” says Erik Frederick, Chief Executive Officer of UNO Pizzeria & Grill. UNO’s gift of travel and leisure will serve as a way to recognize all of its General Managers’ hard work throughout the past 16+ months. The announcement comes after the COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges for the hospitality industry, particularly for restaurant General Managers who grappled with unprecedented obstacles, such as labor shortages, customer and employee safety, and supply chain delays. UNO Pizzeria & Grill announced recently that it will provide its General Managers at the restaurant level with two round-trip airline tickets to travel anywhere in the continental United States.