Dogtown Pizza is a family business, run by Rick and Meredith Schaper and their three sons in St. Louis, Missouri. The business is named after the neighborhood where they started making pizza in their home kitchen in 2006. Over the years, Dogtown has grown, producing over 100,000 freshly frozen pizzas monthly. Today, pizza enthusiasts can find the St. Louis-style pies all over town at grocers large and small. 

With demand for its pizza growing, Dogtown Pizza was struggling to keep up using only manual labor. As an alternative, the owners started investigating pizza equipment to help automate parts of the production process. They found Grote Company online and reached out to learn more about how the company’s industry-leading pizza topping line solutions might meet their needs.

4-Day Workweeks Made Possible with Automation

After discussing the possibilities with Grote Company application specialist Randy Medina, the Dogtown Pizza team visited Grote at the Process Expo trade show in 2019, to see the equipment in action. Shortly after seeing a demonstration, they placed an order.

“We started with just a ValuDose Sauce Applicator and an MC45 cheese depositor in 2020, in our old facility,” said Rick Schaper. “Later, we developed a new production facility and bought two Peppamatics at the same time in 2022. We then bought another MC45 in 2023. Grote seemed to be the most knowledgeable in the pizza-making industry, as well as seeming to have the most experience compared to similar companies.”

Since adding the Grote Company machinery, production rates have increased significantly. Dogtown now produces up to 140,000 pizzas per month, more than twice the number of pizzas per day it was making before adding the equipment.

The company has also reduced its work week to four days with shorter shifts. Labor costs per pizza have been cut in half for some varieties, while processes have been simplified across the production line.

By adding the equipment, Dogtown has been able to expand its product line and distribution points, adding Walmart and Fresh Thyme as retail partners.

“Grote is an incredible company to work with, one of the most responsive and organized companies that we have bought equipment from,” said Schaper. “They are our favorite company when it comes to service, as they always go out of their way to help fix the root cause of any issue, they are timely, and they explain everything we need to know in detail.”