Pizzas inspired by "the Valencian character"

In this golden age for the Valencian esmorzaret, it is not surprising that the formula also works in other formats.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 December 2022 Sunday 22:45
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Pizzas inspired by "the Valencian character"

In this golden age for the Valencian esmorzaret, it is not surprising that the formula also works in other formats. And just as there are mugs, t-shirts and books that boast such an autochthonous tradition, the hotel industry also gives the idea a twist.

This is the case of Del Poble Pizzería, which has a tomato-based pizza, a mixture of mozzarella and emmental, black pudding, sausage, all i oli and chili pepper on its menu. It is one of the most successful, confirms the businessman Rubén Santos, co-founder, together with Isabel Fayos, of this chain born in the small town of Real de Gandía, with just over 2,000 inhabitants.

Born in 2015, Del Poble presents itself as "a wood-fired pizzeria with a Valencian character", explains Santos. His model draws on what was learned and observed in Brazil, where its founders lived back in 2007. "The take-away food model there is much more advanced than here, because going out there is very problematic and delivery is very We looked at Artesiana, a tiny pizzeria, and upon our return we decided to set up one just like it in our town," says the CEO, with hotel ties, since his parents had a restaurant where celebrations were common.

Initially, the project was so that "the towns of the La Safor region would not always have to ask Gandía because the order was 18 euros and it was very expensive," says Rubén Santos. But the success of the proposal made them begin to grow: today they have 30 stores, with four in Madrid, three in Barcelona and up to 12 in the Valencian Community. There are also Del Poble pizzerias in Seville and Malaga, "next week we will open in Córdoba and next year we hope to reach 40 stores," says Santos.

In this growth, organic and without bank financing, they had the help of Lanzadera, Juan Roig's accelerator, which helped them grow at a strategic, structural, fiscal and labor level. "I really like to thank him because he helped us differentiate ourselves from the rest, since we wanted everything to be very local," says Rubén Santos.

Now they have another partner, Glovo, which provides them with a home delivery service and helps them detect niche cities where it makes sense for them to open a new store. "They help us both financially and strategically because they have a consumer database where they recommend us where to open and today it is our biggest partner," explains the businessman.

In this growth throughout the State, they are incorporating local winks in their creations. Thus, just as there is an esmorzaret pizza, there is a Mallorcan pizza or an espencat, in homage to the escalivada, a typical dish both in Catalonia and in the Valencian Community.

"Every time we go to different cities we try to adapt to each product in the city and adapt it," says Rubén Santos. Thus, he assures that in Gandía they buy at the nearest butcher shop and they do the same in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Overall, between 80% and 90% of its suppliers are local, such as the cheese, which is Valencian, or the oil, which is from Jaén, where the Santos family is from.

By the end of the year they will have made some 600,000 pizzas and will close their turnover with around 7.5 million euros, a figure that they hope will reach 9 million euros in 2023. The Covid-19 pandemic is partly to blame for these good numbers. , which gave great impetus to the business by already being focused, from the beginning, on home delivery. "It was a before and after at Del Doble. To be honest, the pandemic was very good for us, because we are specialists in delivery, we remained open and we could learn more. We quadrupled sales and continued to open stores in the middle of the pandemic," acknowledges the businessman .