THE FIRST of its kind in the Snowy Monaro region, La Famiglia in Jindabyne has seen a roaring success with its new pizza vending machine.

Open 24/7 or until sold out, the machine produces fresh, quality Italian made pizza from the push of a button and a three minute wait.

La Famiglia owner Val Viscontini said the feedback so far has been positive with countless customers enjoying the service and selling out every night.

Val said the concept of the machine is to give people the same great quality Italian handmade takeaway pizzas in a faster timeframe.

“Made fresh in the La Famiglia kitchen every day, the pizza vending machine is about keeping a great quality produced at a faster time as wait times for takeaway, especially in winter, can be up to one hour long,” Val said.

“Not everyone wants to wait an hour and some people can get frustrated after waiting in queues all day on the mountain and frustrated from driving down the mountain in huge traffic jams.

“The vending machine is a good option for those not wanting to wait so long, and for all those shift workers, staff that work late hours, or those who arrive in town late at night and nothing is open.”

Val makes the pizzas fresh daily in the La Famiglia restaurant where they are oven cooked the same way that they would be for dine in and takeaway customers.

Slightly smaller to fit the boxes correctly and slightly different hand stretching to minimise puffy crust to fit the box perfectly, he has also kept to a price point that people can afford.

Identical product, identical ingredients, and a menu that allows for four different options hand-picked by Val that would suit most tastebuds.

“We have a kid’s option, a spicy option and vegetarian options available,” Val said.

“I make the pizzas fresh daily, then cut them up and put them in the boxes where they get immediately stored inside the machine.

“The machine is basically one big refrigerator divided into four compartments for different kinds of pizzas.

“Make your selection on the touch screen, pay with card, and working on a spiral system the boxes are spiralled down a conveyor belt which then pushes them forward to a convention oven where the pizzas are heated for three minutes then delivered through the flaps of the vending machine for collection.”

Once ordered the vending machine provides a clock countdown until your pizzas are ready.

The machine fits a total of 64 pizzas and at the moment Val is only half filling the machine and is selling out every day.

With the option of a hot or cold pizza where you can take your pizzas and reheat from home the machine is proving popular amongst both locals and visitors to the town.

Making at least 130 pizzas per night, Val said he missed out on a lot of sales over the years because of takeaway wait times and believes the machine will help with lost revenue.

“The restaurant was missing out on around 50 to 60 pizza sales a night and it breaks my heart as a business owner to lose so many customers,” Val said.

“I have been struggling for the last few years, and was almost ready to give up the restaurant, it’s been challenging and the hardest thing I have done in my life to keep the business afloat.

“The vending machine idea came from France who have been using them throughout the country for the last seven years and I had a French guy working for me over summer who mentioned the machines to me, and I looked into it and thought why not give it a try here in Jindabyne.”

A Melbourne computer tech company brought the machine concept onboard and is now theirs for global distribution and Val got the first machine that came into Australia.

The machine was previously placed in South Bank Station where it was featured on Sunrise Australia and is now happily situated out the front of La Famiglia Jindabyne.

Working off a simple touch screen process with one screen as an LED menu screen, the other is the order screen with an easy to follow process to get your fresh pizza in just three minutes per pizza.