As a fellow Aussie and one who knows the Gold Coast well, I would need to know a few points about where you are etc.
Where on the GC are you situated? If you are not in the heart of Surfers Paradise, Coolangatta or in one of the HIGH VOLUME major shopping centres, then forget it.
I would only open where there is all year round high traffic volumes where there is a big spread of tourist looking for something quick and easy (and there are heaps of places catering for them on the GC) and easy spending locals.
Are you looking at slices for lunch time? If so do you have equipment for keeping them hot and fresh looking. Also do you want to sell a slice for the same effort as selling a full pizza.
What other side products are you selling as well as pizzas? What size pizzas are you doing. If small “Large” pizzas such as Dominos, Pizza Hut and Eagle Boys then your prices need to reflect close to theirs if you want to get any of the lunch market they get.
Many of the answers you will get will be from U.S.A. where their markets are completely different to ours, plus the wages are half to what we pay. We do not eat any where as much pizza as they do and we are not geared to pizza at lunch time. So be carefull evaluating any information from there, as good as it is, because it doesn’t reflect the Oz market.
You also say you are going with a Blue Seal oven so I can assume it is a deck oven not a conveyor. Taking the longer cook time for decks vs conveyors I think it would be too long to wait at lunch time for a deck to cook a pizza.
My personal experience from lunch time openings is that it is a no go. You just cannot get the volumes to meet the time and costs.
If you are opening for the first time then put your efforts into where the volumes are going to be and that is the night trade. Stuff that up and you wont have any market, let alone a lunch trade. Get your “i’s” double dotted and your “t’s” double crossed to have your night trade the best it possibly can and build on that. Once you get that high volumed, running smoothly and getting rave reviewsacross the coast then maybe start doing the numbers on lunch trade.
After 6 1/2 years we are now evaluating the possibilty of lunch trade when our centre is fully completed with it’s upgrade whhich includes a food precinct (we are primely situated right in the middle of it). We are high volume, great staff, massive online review support, strong brand name etc, but when and if we open for lunch the format will be not as our night trade. We will be more deversified with less emphasis on pizza and more on “cafe style” food so we can capture a bigger market at lunch time.
Get your shop set up, learn to crawl, then walk and when you can run very fast look at lunches for an option.
Dave