First ever National Pizza Week is a resounding success.

First ever National Pizza Week

is a resounding success

The UK’s inaugural National Pizza Week was celebrated between 22 and the 28 November 2021. Here’s more about the event, and how you could get involved this year.

HIGHLIGHTS

Kicking off with the annual Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association (PAPA) Awards and culminating in an abundance of publicity for the industry, the first National Pizza Week was hailed by all involved as a resounding success.

A homage to one of the nation’s favourite meals, celebrating pizza in all its cheesy, gooey, glory, the aims of the awareness week were to support our members to make a strong comeback and provide a much-needed boost to the economy.

Alongside media agency, Pretzel Group, and working with sponsors Papa John’s, Stateside Foods and Goodfellas, PAPA shaped the pizza industry facts, statistics, trends, and research into data driven media stories that ran across hundreds of titles.

PAPA members up and down the country were invited to get involved, with many sharing their news, ideas and putting on some brilliant offers for their customers, all of which contributed to taking the humble pizza to new levels of fame.

In fact, news stories publicising National Pizza Week deals, from members of the association, ended up making it into big national titles such as the pages of Hello! magazine.

In total, there were 498 print and articles, interviews, and broadcast mentions, of National Pizza Week. The column inches generated for businesses, partners, and entrepreneurs as well as the industry as a whole, had a readership of 340million. Online coverage was shared on social media channels over 2,500 times.

VEGANS TAKING A SLICE OF THE MARKET

One story that really took off during National Pizza Week reflected the growing popularity of veganism, incorporating statistics from one of the leading takeaway pizza providers - Papa John’s.

On analysis of sales figures, the pizza chain found that vegans were taking more than a slice of the market. A 154% rise in vegan sides and 81% rise in vegan pizzas were reported, demonstrating the trend for a plant-based diet as consumers switch on to its health and environmental benefits. The data also revealed that Southend is the vegan pizza capital of the UK.

Papa John’s now has over 500 veganfriendly stores across the country, with six delicious vegan pizza options. The brand offered pizza lovers a massive 50% off vegan pizzas to celebrate both National Pizza Week and World Vegan Month which took place at the same time.

“It’s fantastic to see demand for vegan food continue to grow every year, largely driven by the incredible range of plantbased dishes available now to consumers,” said Giles Codd, senior marketing director at Papa John’s UK.

UK’S FAVOURITE TOPPINGS REVEALED

Research by sponsor Goodfella’s revealed the classic Margherita to be the nation’s favourite pizza, during National Pizza Week.

We’ve seen toppings such as baked beans, smoked reindeer and even a banana and curry pizza tickle the nation’s tastebuds, however the data shows that UK has quite the reliable palate.

Cheese pipped the meat dishes to the top spot as the favourite topping (42%), closely followed by Pepperoni (33%) and then Meat Feast (8%).

Sam Dolan, head of marketing at Goodfella’s said: “We’re constantly seeing creative and unexpected flavour combinations emerge, but it’s clear to see that there is still a huge amount of love for the classics.”

SHARING INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

Something that always goes down well with the public is when industry experts and members share how to create a professional meal at home. So, when culinary director, and pizza specialist Michael Eyre shared how to quickly, easily, and cheaply convert any conventional oven to create the perfect slice of pizza,

it was no surprise that the news spread quickly – in 28 news titles from across the country.

“It’s as simple as having the right tools to do the job,” said Michael Eyre. “Every pizza-lover should have a pizza peel and pizza stone to hand to create a dish that takes you to Italy and back in a bite.

“The next thing is to turn up the heat. Make sure your oven is on its highest/ maximum setting and then it’s a real wait and see game – keep a very close eye on your pizza. It may take a bit of trial and error to get the perfect pizza but when you do it feels like a real victory.”

A REAL PIZZA WORK

Another publicity drive focused on the pizza entrepreneurs who’ve made their dough, through making dough. As well as a taking a deep-pan-alysis of jobs in the pizza industry which has taken off spectacularly in recent years as described by Jim Winship, director of PAPA, who says: “Pizza is not just a delicious dinner, it can be an extremely lucrative career choice as many talented chefs are proving in the UK. What each of the entrepreneurs we focused on during National Pizza Week had in common is that they’ve found their niche, having taken the ordinary pizza and thought outside the box to put their own spin on it.”

Here are the stories of just a few…

CHAMPIONING WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY Name: Viv Durrant Age: 47 Founder Porter Pizza in Sheffi eld

Viv Durrant, founder/owner of Porter Pizza in Sheffi eld has a degree in philosophy and another in physiotherapy, but from a young age, she always felt that running her own pizzeria was her calling.

“I’ve had the idea of opening a wood-fi red pizza place for as long as I can remember, and now that I have, I absolutely love it. We’re a small, neighbourhood pizzeria that focuses on making quality authentic Neapolitan pizza,” she says.

“Working in this industry it is very male dominated, being a female head chef in an all-male team defi nitely feels like you’re smashing some barriers. On the fl ip side, I really love it when I get great female employees, particularly those who get skilled on our wood-fi red oven as this skill is one that I rarely see women doing. At one point I had a very strong set of female employees. With fi ve inhouse-trained women kicking out 80 Neapolitan pizzas per hour I felt extremely proud.”

THE FAST-FIRING FOODIE TAKING THE UK BY STORM Mario Aleppo Founder and CEO Fireaway Age: 31 Number of employees: 500

31-year-old Mario Aleppo, from Mitcham is the founder and CEO of the award winning Fireaway pizza chain, a unique ‘Subwaystyle pizzeria’ that delivers fresh, homemade and infi nitely customisable pizzas cooked in 180 seconds.

Mario started his business in 2016 with one store and three employees. Within fi ve years (and during a global pandemic) that has grown to an astounding 94 stores with over 500 employees. Here he shares his journey so far.

“My fi rst thought was to open a Subway franchise, which was what I had planned to do, but being Italian myself, I noticed a gap in the market for an authentic pizzeria that could be classed as ‘fast food’. By that I mean that in terms of how quickly we deliver it, I’m very particular on the ingredients we use – we always use homemade tomato sauce and dough made fresh every day in store.

“Our pizzas are created in a Subwaystyle – you can have unlimited toppings in any combination. They are then fast fi red in 180 seconds, hence the name Fireaway.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022

Jim Winship, director of PAPA, fully intends for National Pizza Week to become an annual event, bringing together pizza industry professionals up and down the country. “Following the huge success of 2021, we would like to dedicate a week each November to celebrating pizza and we want as many of our members as possible to get involved, be that sharing the story of their success, coming up with new products or passing on brilliant off ers to consumers. So, make sure you put 21st – 27th November in your diary as a date to remember,” he says.

Please keep an eye on the PAPA newsletters for more information on how you can get involved, or email kevin@papa.org.uk to register your interest.