Sainsbury’s dips toe in pizza takeaway market

Sainsbury’s is trialling a personalised takeaway pizza service through which customers can order by telephone and pick up in-store just 30 minutes later.

Customers can order a 10 or 14 inch pizza and choose from stone-baked thin and crispy or deep pan bases with a range of toppings available including pepperoni, spicy beef, fresh peppers and roasted mushroom. Shoppers can even specify what time they would like to collect their pizza.

Customers can pay via card at the pizza counter and can also buy up to five associated items at the same time, such as wedges from the hot counter, salad and drinks. This option enables them to skip the checkout queue and keep their takeaway hot, Sainsbury’s said.

The service is currently live and being trialled in Sainsbury’s Redhill and Cambridge Eddington stores with the Bradford store due to kick off the service a week’s time. The trial will last for 12 weeks in each store and will be reviewed just after Christmas to assess popularity.

Nicola Goodall, strategy executive at Sainsbury’s, said: “We want to help all of our customers to live well for less and as part of this we’re continually looking at new ways to deliver high quality services that offer faster and more convenient options.

“By giving our customers the chance to pre-order personalised hot pizzas and pay at the counter we are saving them time and giving them a great value takeaway experience. As the UK’s first supermarket to test this service, this is an exciting trial for us to listen and understand how our customers respond.”