Dogtown Pizza is a family business run by Rick and Meredith Schaper and their three sons in St. Louis, MO. The business is named after the neighborhood where they started making pizza in their home kitchen in 2006.

Over the years, Dogtown has grown to produce 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.

The challenge

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 pizza topping line solutions might meet their needs.

The solution

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,” Schaper says. “Later, we developed a new production facility and bought two Peppamatics at the same time in 2022. We then bought another MC45 in 2023.”

The results

Since adding the Grote Company machinery, production rates have increased significantly. Dogtown now produces 120,000-140,000 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.

Further, Dogtown has added new products to its line, expanded sales to more retailers, including Walmart and Fresh Thyme, and now sells to a broader geographic area.

The future

Grote Company looks forward to further collaboration with Dogtown Pizza, as the company plans to expand in the future.

“Grote is an incredible company to work with, one of the most responsive and organized companies that we have bought equipment from,” Schaper says. “Grote is our favorite company to work with 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. We feel they give us the most time of day, whereas some other companies don’t seem as keen to help or are unable to help as much.”

Although he’s unsure of the timing, Schaper believes Dogtown will add another line to its manufacturing facility.

“A second line will happen one day down the line,” Schaper says.

Related: Grote Company family of brands acquires SPI Automation