Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MARGHERITA (Pizza Vending Machine with Innovative oven and refrigerated storage technology for improved performance and operations)
Reporting period: 2017-02-01 to 2017-05-31
Although the European Vending Machine Market produces €14.6 billion annual turnover, the pizza vending machine segment is well under-developed. The main barriers they face are: size (>2m, difficult to fit doors), weight (>300kg, making difficult transportation), high energy demands (3,5-5kW while conventional vending machines require 1,5-2,5kW) and large investment costs (€40,000). Margherita machine will solve these market issues and create business opportunities, while responding to current regulations and operators’ demands (lower E consumption) and end users’ needs (healthy food ready to go). Margherita’s objectives: new modular design to reduce size, automatic control system to reduce E consumption, a user-friendly interface, an app for operators and optimization of the manufacturing process.
During the execution of the Feasibility Study we have addressed several issues:
Technical advancements: we established the market technical requirements for the machine (size, weight, energy demands, economic cost), we established innovations to be developed in Ph2 (modular design, SW -control system, stand-by mode and user interface), manufacturing process) and we defined our FTO and IPR strategy (patents and trademark). Commercial advancements: we quantified the large potential market of Margherita in EU &US and defined a geographical commercial strategy; we analysed our current competitors, our advantages and our customers’ feedback (who used the last version of Margherita); we developed a financial analysis (manufacturing cost reduction, potential growth for Cierreci, preliminary budget, ROI), a complete risk assessment (technical & commercial) and an environmental analysis (SWOT, PESTLE).
Technical advancements: we established the market technical requirements for the machine (size, weight, energy demands, economic cost), we established innovations to be developed in Ph2 (modular design, SW -control system, stand-by mode and user interface), manufacturing process) and we defined our FTO and IPR strategy (patents and trademark). Commercial advancements: we quantified the large potential market of Margherita in EU &US and defined a geographical commercial strategy; we analysed our current competitors, our advantages and our customers’ feedback (who used the last version of Margherita); we developed a financial analysis (manufacturing cost reduction, potential growth for Cierreci, preliminary budget, ROI), a complete risk assessment (technical & commercial) and an environmental analysis (SWOT, PESTLE).
The innovations to be introduced in Margherita will impact the current market in the following ways: Margherita will be the unique pizza vending machine easily transportable anywhere (50% reduction in and 46% reduction in weight size compared to state-of-the-art machines), consuming very low energy (40% less than competitors’ machines) and at an affordable price (57% reduction in price of competitors). We expect the improvements provided by Margherita to boost the pizza vending machines segment, which at the moment is underdeveloped due to the barriers presented. In this sense, Margherita will create 25 new employees and €2,8M revenues by the 3rd year of commercialization and new business opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs looking to start their own endeavors.