Northern Ireland's Pizzado wins first business with Ocado

Pizzado, the Northern Irish producer of innovative frozen pizza kits, has won business for its products from Ocado, the leading UK on-line retailer.

Based in Portaferry, county Down, Pizzado is now supplying Ocado with its cheese, pepperoni and gluten-free cheese packs.

Established in 2013 by Karen Boyd, an experienced pizza retailer, Pizzado is now developing significant business in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The Ocado deal is the small producer's most significant business to date in Britain.

Mrs Boyd, commenting on the Ocado contract, says: "I am delighted to have won this hugely important contract from the UK's biggest on-line retailer. The deal gives me a strong foothold in what is clearly a huge marketplace for my range of pizza packs. There's tremendous interest developing in my unique DIY pizza packs."

Setting up a small enterprise making pizzas was a logical step for the county Down businesswoman. "I didn't really want to get into the business of producing ready-to-cook pizzas in boxes because it's also very competitive. It's a market dominated by major players.

"I sought to use my experience in selling a wide range of pizzas to create something different but authentic. This led me to take a long hard look at the market to see if there was a gap that I could exploit and make a profit," she adds.

She came up with an idea to produce an innovative frozen kit that made it easier than ever for consumers to create a pizza and enjoy the whole process of doing so.

"I reckoned the frozen kit would appeal in particular to children and teenagers interested in cooking and keen to create their own convenient meals. I believe that people want to cook again and are keen to know more about what they are eating, especially what their children are consuming, and those producing the food."

She developed an initial kit comprising two dough balls with sachets of mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce and tested the concept on family and friends. The feedback was universally positive. "Everyone found the pizzas easy to make and very tasty," she adds.

The dough balls are easily kneaded to make two 9-inch pizza bases, if required. Cheese, the sauce and other ingredients are added and the pizza popped into an oven for around 15 minutes. It's then ready to eat. The re-sealable pack means one set of pizza ingredients can be kept in the freezer for use later.

"It's not a microwaveable product," she adds. "Only men ask if they can cook it in a microwave," she adds.

Virtually all the Pizzado ingredients - flour and medium fat mozzarella cheese - are sourced from Northern Ireland suppliers. The frozen pizzas are gluten-free and available in cheese and tomato, pepperoni and garlic bread flavours. They are also low in sugar and have half the salt of other pizzas currently on the market.

Tesco was among the first retailers in Ireland to place an order. This followed the company's success in the influential Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards in Dublin, an annual event that showcases new products to supermarkets and other major retailers, in 2014. Pizzado came out on top in the all-Ireland pizza category.