Canada’s pizza scene has changed dramatically in the last five years. Specialty, high-end pies that still need massive production are replacing the generic fast-food slice. The popularity of heavy-topping “Indian style” pizzas in Brampton and Surrey, the rise of deep-dish Detroit-style squares in downtown Toronto, and the gourmet thin-crust pizza trend in Vancouver are all examples of how significantly the game has changed. High volume used to mean sacrificing quality in favor of speed. Your customers now expect artisanal quality, even if you are producing 300 pies on a Friday night.

Your standard restaurant equipment or residential-grade equipment will not withstand the crush if you intend to expand your independent pizzeria or open a new franchise. A kitchen that operates like a factory is necessary for high volume. It must be extremely durable, quick, and reliable. Numerous pizzerias have benefited from Canada Food Equipment’s assistance in creating productive lines that endure the Super Bowl rush. This is a thorough guide to the equipment required to create a successful pizza empire.

How a Commercial Pizza Store Should Choose Ovens

Your company’s operations depend heavily on the oven you use. The oven selection affects your labor costs, speed, and crust style in a high-volume setting. Although wood-fired ovens might seem ideal, they are rarely the best option for a store looking to increase delivery volumes. Conveyor ovens and deck ovens are the two main choices for the majority of high-volume stores in Canada.

Conveyor Ovens: The Automation King

We nearly always suggest a gas conveyor oven if your business model primarily depends on delivery services like UberEats or SkipTheDishes. “Air impingement” technology has been refined by companies such as XLT, Middleby Marshall, and Lincoln.

Here, labor is the true advantage. With a conveyor oven, you might hire entry-level workers who only have to load the belt and dress the pie. The oven guarantees flawless cooking each and every time. There is no burning, no rotating, and no bottom inspection. These units can also be stacked. If you are working out of a small ghost kitchen in a high-rent area, you can stack them two or three high to triple your output without using a single additional square foot of valuable floor space.

Deck Ovens: The Artisan Choice

However, you need the heating capacity of a deck pizza oven if you are selling traditional New York-style slices, where your customer is expecting a crispy, charred bottom. Thick stone hearths that retain heat extremely well are a feature of Bakers Pride or Garland units. The raw dough immediately puffs up and crisps when it comes into contact with the hot stone.

Skill is the trade-off. A skilled “pizzaiolo” is required for controlling the oven, rotate the pies to pinpoint hot spots, and to operate the door. Deck ovens are more challenging to scale in volume, but they serve as the only option for certain kinds of pizza.

Pizza Store Equipment for Handling Dough

The most common mistake we see new owners make is buying the wrong mixer. In a standard bakery, a planetary mixer is fine. That is the machine where the beater spins around the bowl. It works wonders for cake batter, whipped cream, and light cookie dough. But pizza dough is a different beast entirely. It is heavy, dense, and has a low hydration level.

Why Your Planetary Mixer Can Fail

If you try to mix 60 lbs of dense pizza dough in a standard 60-quart planetary mixer, you are putting immense strain on the gears. The resistance is too high. You will likely strip the gears or burn out the motor within the first year of high-volume operation. More importantly, planetary mixers generate a lot of friction. Friction creates heat. If your dough gets too hot during the mixing process, the yeast activates too early, and your dough will “blow” before you are ready to use it.

The Solution Spiral Mixers

The Spiral Mixer is the industry standard for large quantities of pizza. These devices spin both the spiral hook and the bowl. The dough is kneaded much more effectively and, most importantly, kept cool by this dual-rotation system. These tanks are made to last all day by companies like Sunmix, Hobart, and Eurodib. The machine won’t have any trouble filling the bowl to the brim. This is an essential improvement if you are creating heavy doughs for thick crusts or specialty breads. It is essential.

Automating the Roll

You must shape your dough after it has been combined. Although rolling by hand is artisanal, it is also slow and puts your employees at risk for repetitive strain injuries. You need mechanical assistance to handle 300 orders a night.

Dough Sheeters are floor-standing machines that roll dough out to a specific millimeter thickness in seconds. They are essential for thin-crust or cracker-crust styles where consistency is key. Alternatively, Heated Dough Presses are incredible for thicker crusts. The heated platen helps “relax” the gluten instantly, preventing the dough from shrinking back (the “snap back” effect) after you press it. This ensures every single pizza is exactly 14 inches wide, which helps you control your food costs perfectly.

Maintain the perfect serving temperature without drying out your crust. Our selection of countertop pizza warmers offers the ideal balance of heat and humidity to preserve texture and flavor. Compact enough to fit any service counter yet durable enough for daily commercial use, these heated displays are the reliable solution for keeping your inventory fresh and ready for the lunch rush.

Is Smallware the Underrated Pizza Store Equipment?

Beyond the big heavy machinery, your store runs on the small tools. These are the unsung heroes that can cut ten seconds off every pizza. Over a year, those seconds add up to thousands of dollars in labor.

Dough Dockers

A simple spiked roller that perforates the dough. This prevents large air bubbles from forming in the oven. If you don’t dock your dough, you end up with giant burnt bubbles that customers complain about.

Pizza Screens

Essential for conveyor ovens. These mesh discs allow airflow to the bottom of the crust so it bakes evenly. They are cheap, durable, and you should have hundreds of them.

Rocker Cutters

For high volume, traditional wheel cutters are too slow and flimsy. A large 20-inch rocker blade cuts a whole pizza in one single rocking motion. It is faster, cleaner, and the blades stay sharp longer.

Spoodles

A flat-bottomed ladle that helps you portion and spread sauce in a single circular motion. It guarantees you use the exact right amount of sauce on every pie, protecting your margins.

Delivery Struggles For Every Pizza Store and Equipment That Works

Delivery is a struggle against the weather conditions in Canada. When a cardboard box comes into contact with air that is minus twenty degrees, it instantly loses heat. You will never get back that customer if your pizza is delivered cold. The last essential stage in the production process involves managing the temperature from the oven to the door.

The Heated Holding Cabinet For Pizza Stores

Never leave baked pizzas on top of the oven while a driver arrives. The leftover heat dries out the cheese and makes the crust tough. Instead, use a humidified holding cabinet. They act as a station for passing through. While the kitchen staff loads from the rear, the drivers grab from the front. To maintain the freshness of the crust, the pies are stored in the cabinet at a food-safe temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit with the ideal humidity.

Delivery Bags with Active Induction

High-volume delivery fleets are increasingly using Active Induction Delivery Bags. Conventional vinyl bags are passive; they only hold heat that already exists. An induction bag’s disc contains a heating element. They instantly charge when set up on a base station in the store. In order to guarantee that the pizza is as hot at the customer’s door in Edmonton as it was when it came out of the oven, they actively produce heat during the drive.

What Are the Local Considerations For Commercial Pizzerias?

All commercial pizza ovens, whether gas or electric, typically require an appropriate Type 1 Ventilation Hood with fire suppression. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, local laws governing “Make-Up Air” units, which replace the air your hood sucks out of the kitchen, are getting stricter. Your project may fail if you don’t include this in your budget.

Additionally, you must make sure that every piece of equipment you purchase is approved by the CSA. In Canada, non-compliant equipment will be right away red-tagged by safety inspectors. You can check safety standards at the CSA Group website. Additionally, high-efficiency conveyor ovens often qualify for substantial rebates from providers like Enbridge. It is worth checking with Energy Star to see which models can save you money on your gas bill.

Using the Correct Pizza Store Equipment to Build Your Pizza Empire

Purchasing the right equipment now will save you headaches, repairs, and labor costs later on, even though opening a high-volume pizzeria requires a substantial initial investment. Instead of fighting a cold oven or a jammed mixer, your staff should be focused on making delicious pizza. Whether you need a better mixer or an entire high-volume pizza store equipment package, we have the knowledge to help you choose what actually works.

We at Canada Food Equipment have the expertise to help you select the exact package you need, from the spiral mixer to the finished pizza peel. We are aware of the durability needed for our market as well as the unique voltage requirements of commercial kitchens in Canada. If you are ready to start building your kitchen, we are ready to help you turn that dough into dough.