Published: 04 July 2014

SLICE Pizzeria, a new food outlet in Bulawayo, has introduced a new brand of pizza baked in fire ovens to fill a niche of the market share.

The proprietors of the food outlet, Xolani Dube and his wife Nomagugu, said the use of fire ovens instead of electronic ovens makes their brand unique as the use of fire from wood retains the natural taste of ingredients.

He said they did not enter the pizza market to compete with the well-established Innscor's Pizza Inn although the competition was stiff.

"I did not venture into the business to compete but the competition is indeed stiff, even with such conditions we manage to have at least 50 customers a day," Dube said.

He said they had received an overwhelming response from the market and were inspired by Pizza Inn to come up with their brand.

"Initially I wanted to open a traditional restaurant that offered all kinds of foods but I felt that the market was oversubscribed. I was later inspired by terrific Tuesdays at Pizza Inn where people flock to the outlet for pizza.

"I somehow noted that the demand for more pizza outlets was high in Bulawayo and thus the decision to do pizza," Dube said.

Dube worked in South Africa for more than five years at Italian restaurants where he acquired skills of pizza baking.

Slice Pizzeria offers 30 different flavours of pizza including anita, slicer, sweets thai, corne meat, health feast, four seasons, barbeque chicken and chocolate pizza.

The product is offered in medium and large sizes.

Dube said they wanted to expand their operations to other cities in the country but the only setback was the prevailing economic climate.

"We hope to expand and add more branches but with our unstable economy it might take a while", he said.
- chronicle

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