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Cost to make a pizza

jjohnson

New member
I was wondering what the way is to determine the cost of making a pizza. Or how much it costs you to make a 10",14" and 16" cheese pizza.
 
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At the risk of appearing to be a smart alec, figure out the portioning of each item to make the pizza. How much cheese, sauce and dough for each size. Figure out how much it costs you in food costs for each one. (If you pay 1.60 per pound of cheese and use 10 oz, then that is 1.00 . . . and so on). For dough, add up flour, salt, yeast, etc for a whole batch and then do the math for each dough ball (9 oz, 12 oz or whatever size).

EXAMPLE: 23 oz Dough + 5 oz sauce + 10 oz cheese = 16" cheese pizza (insert costs in the previous formula; lots of math to do)

Add all the ingredients up and you get cost of food. That is the best estimate I can give. If you are looking for all the other costs borken out, like labor and utilities ratio . . . . .I don’t have an answer.
 
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I can add that finding an accurate food cost is a tad elusive until one is established with their suppliers. I can estimate, and I have, by pricing my supplies with SAMS and with Restaurant Depot. I have an account set up with a regional food wholesaler, however I’ve found they have me on such a high price sheet at this point I can not use their “price sheet” as a good source of where my actual costs will be.

I have access to a friends account pricing with the same company and know for instance my 6N1 ground tomatos I’d currently be charged a outlandish $31.69 a case. Using her account pricing I’d buy them for $21.50, a lot closer to the expeted actual cost. (I can buy them through RD for $20.67cs, but it’s a 100 mile trip from my home)

Because of my current business, I recognize and accept that an account will never be given the bottom line price until there is a proven history of purchasing. I know I’ll be able to “negotiate” a deal here and there, but will always have to do my homework to make sure my suppliers pencils are as sharp as mine!

You can get “close” by shopping around…but I think till you get established you’ll not be to the penny exact.
 
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In addition to the above there are a couple of other points to take into account:

There is the ‘ideal’ food cost i.e. what it should cost to make and:

The ‘Actual’ food cost which tends to be higher this will also include over/under topping, wastage due to errors, waste due to volume (you open a tin of something but you don’t sell a enough before it expires’ etc etc
 
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Wizzle Wassell:
The ‘Actual’ food cost which tends to be higher this will also include over/under topping, wastage due to errors, waste due to volume (you open a tin of something but you don’t sell a enough before it expires’ etc etc
Wiz is soooo right. Waste and imprecise employees is killer sometimes.

Over time, one can fine tune the target and the actual by accounting for the average “yield” of a unit of something. I don’t use all of a 3# bag of fresh spinach, so I estimate that my average yield is 70%. So, I price my ‘per ounce’ cost using the yield rather than the gross weight. I get a little more precision between ideal/actual.
 
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Like everyone else said, it varies depending on your product and your supplier. To give you an idea, my 14" cracker crust cheese pizza costs $1.47 while my 14" chicago style cheese costs a whopping $4.13!!

The main difference is the quantity of cheese and sauce. But more oil in the skin certainly adds to the cost as well…

As to those who mentioned they are not getting primo pricing from their distributors, that doesn’t sound right. Unless you’re on terms, they should be giving you the best deal period. If not, tell them to kiss your butt and move on…

patrick cuezze
Next Door Pizza - comign soon
 
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pcuezze:
As to those who mentioned they are not getting primo pricing from their distributors, that doesn’t sound right. Unless you’re on terms, they should be giving you the best deal period. If not, tell them to kiss your butt and move on…
Good luck with that 🙂
 
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