Hardware Podcasts

A Behind-the-Scenes Look into Pizza Manufacturing with Nick Fallucca of Palermo’s Pizza

Manufacturing Happy Hour · 16 Mar 2021 · 47m

What this episode covers

Nick Fallucca, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Palermo's Pizza, discusses the evolution of his family's frozen pizza business from a Sicilian bakery to a national brand with products like Urban Pie and Screaming Sicilian. He details the complexities of food manufacturing, specifically the challenges of maintaining consistent topping distribution and the strategic role of packaging in retail logistics. Fallucca explains how the company balances innovation with mass appeal, citing failed products like 'Three Little Piggies' and successful partnerships with retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Palermo's Pizza, Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, Steamchain.io
Products
Urban Pie, Screaming Sicilian
Also
Only the Paranoid Survive, Start With Why

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 29m

    Reinventing the Pizza Bagel: Bagelverse's Jacob Cooper on Nostalgia and CPG

    Jacob Cooper, founder of Bagelverse, explains his pivot from eight years as a CTO in AI to launching a nostalgic pizza bagel brand with flavors like spicy vodka and barbecue chicken. He details the complex supply chain requiring two separate co-packers for bagels and pizza assembly, and his strategy of validating demand through pop-ups before securing manufacturing. Cooper emphasizes the critical importance of high-quality packaging for emerging brands and his long-term, relationship-focused approach to securing retail placements with major retailers like Target and Whole Foods.

    Starting a product companyManufacturing partners & offshoring
    6 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 30m

    Founder Feature: Hannah Pollack of Nightingale Ice Cream

    Hannah Pollack, founder and CEO of Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, discusses the brand's 10-year journey from a restaurant dessert to a nationally distributed frozen novelty. She explains the technical and logistical challenges of maintaining product integrity for ice cream during distribution, specifically contrasting their real ice cream with 'frozen dairy desserts' that use stabilizers to prevent melting. Pollack details their scaling strategy, including site visits to vet distribution partners and a new expansion into 175 Whole Foods center store locations, while emphasizing their commitment to sustainable sourcing and non-GMO ingredients.

    Manufacturing partners & offshoringMaterials & manufacturing processes
    8 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 34m

    Founder Feature: Damiano Messineo of Loopini

    Damiano Messineo, founder of Loopini, explains how he created a premium, protein-packed frozen pizza using lupini beans, San Marzano tomatoes, and mozzarella from the Montelatari region, all produced in Naples. He details the supply chain challenges of importing frozen goods from Italy, including the high cost of air freight versus the cash flow strain of 40-day sea shipping cycles. Messineo also discusses his strategy of testing product placement in New York City retail stores and leveraging the Startup CPG community for early validation and packaging support.

    Sourcing & supply chainPricing, margins & unit economics
    8 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 25m

    Bonus Episode: Khalil Khamis of Crafty Ramen

    Khalil Khamis, CEO of Crafty Ramen, explains how the brand scaled from a 24-seat Canadian restaurant to nearly 3,000 retail doors by leveraging a 'fresh frozen' puck format that avoids plastic trays. He details the challenges of adapting Michelin-trained recipes for mass production, the strategic use of the restaurant as an R&D lab for new SKUs like Brisket Birria, and the complexities of cross-border logistics and Costco's 13-week rotation model ahead of their U.S. launch.

    Scaling productionManufacturing partners & offshoring
    7 chapters

  • People of Packaging · 39m

    214 - Alex Cree on how he met Mark Cuban and innovated a new food product

    Alex Cree, co-founder of Baozza, explains how he combined Chinese bao buns with pizza toppings to create a unique food product, starting with pop-ups in China and securing investment from Mark Cuban. The company faced significant packaging challenges when transitioning to the US market, specifically finding microwave-safe, steamable bags that could be flow-wrapped by American co-packers. Despite pandemic-related supply chain disruptions forcing them to source packaging locally at higher costs, Baozza successfully launched in major US retailers like Sprouts and Target.

    Materials & manufacturing processesManufacturing partners & offshoring
    7 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Manufacturing Happy Hour. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.