Profiles in Pizza: Spyral Equipment
By Tom Boyles | PMQ Staff

Having had the benefit of traveling throughout Australia and attending tradeshows all across the globe, PMQ’s Pizza Australia staff has the privilege of seeing and understanding many facets of companies that restaurant owners do not get to see. Many know these companies only by their name or products. In each issue of the new PMQ’s Pizza Australia we will be profiling different companies and people to give you a better idea who and what is out there to help you succeed. While these companies do have products to sell, all of them also have knowledge and experience that they can share too… even if you aren’t a current customer. This is what makes the Australian restaurant business one of the best in the world. For this installment, we talked with Andrew Morris of Spyral Pty Ltd. If you don’t know much about who they are or what they are about, we hope this will give you a better picture.

When and did you begin your career in the pizza industry? I began my career 25 years ago in Melbourne as a State Manager working with Taylor Freezer. I started out as a State Manager and eventually worked my way into the National Sales Manager position.

What area do you specialize in (design, food, equipment, consulting, etc.)? Spyral services all areas of the restaurant industry, but we specialize in pizza equipment and provide complete kitchen packages and also offer servicing and maintenance programs as needed as well as providing service contracts where we come in and do routine checkups and preventative maintenance . The main things we are known for are ovens, dough rollers, mixers, and finance, but there are many other areas we cover, such as kitchen design and assistance with setting up a restaurant’s complete kitchen from the ground up.

In what areas do you see pizza shop owners needing the most help and how can you provide that assistance? All too often we see operators who buy things they don’t need or do not think about future growth. Buying equipment that suits their needs and requirements is the key to succeeding from the start so you don’t have to go back and rework your entire operation when you begin to grow, but if you want to start with used equipment you also need to have ovens that work. We offer full service and spare parts support to ensure customers are able to sell pizzas seven days a week. We have trained salesmen and service technicians available 24/7, but if you have a question, we are also there to help you get started the right way…if we can do that, then when you begin to grow you will remember that we are there to help.

What is the one best piece of advice you can tell restaurant owners? Pizzas have to be delivered within half an hour and need to be hot. When setting up your shop, think speed, which means looking at the flow of work in the kitchen as well as selecting the right equipment that can handle the loads and produce the needed volumes.

What is the most common mistake you see restaurant owners making? The most common mistake we see is using equipment that is not capable of handling a business’s busier periods, which results in not being able to service their customer within 20-30 minutes. Probably the second biggest mistake is not maintaining their equipment. A little preventative maintenance goes a long way, because properly service equipment prevents those nightmare breakdowns, which never occur during a slow period…avoidable failures usually occur during you busiest days and hours.

If you had to make a prediction, in what areas do you see the biggest opportunity/ potential for restaurant owners in the next two years? What we are seeing is a trend towards gourmet and better quality pizzas. If you look at what is coming out of the contest, like the Best of the Best competitions, and then look at what are the hot trends and places people are going to, it’s the upscale and gourmet restaurants.

What brands and/or type of service and/ or equipment do you provide? We provide Blodgett, Middleby Marshall, MEC, Somerset, Southbend, Cooktek, Pitco, and MagiKitch’n. What a lot of people may not know is that Spyral isn’t just an equipment provider, but a full-service supplier of equipment, service and maintenance. I think the experience of the staff is also a major asset to Spyral as well as restaurant owners.