Greetings from Brazil

[brmarciorio]

Hi all! I?m a 43yo brazilian living in Rio de Janeiro.
I?m extremely enthusiastic about food, and pizza is one os my greatest passions since I was a Kid growing up in S?o Paulo.
There we have now over 5.500 pizzarias, being about 90% using WFO. So...other types of pizza are just not accepatble to me.
I?ve been studying this forum for over a year now but just recently the idea of becoming a comercial WFO builder is getting more and more attractive to me.
Here is the scenario. In Rio did not exist a wood fire baked pizza culture so far. Therefore, less than 10% of the pizzarias use it.
It just so happens that our local consumers are more and more into gourmet food and starting to request more and more food made in a propper way and therefore the demmand on WFO is starting to take off.
The opportunity lyes on the fact that there are no builders in the area, so they have to "import" the builders or precast ovens from Sao Paulo, around 300 miles away and they are both extremely expensive.
So...
I?m going to need some help...LOL
But I?m already very very greatfull for you all putting together this source of knowledge for us dumb people to take advantage from.
Thank you guys!!!

PS: sorry about the poor english writing...

[lwood]

Re: Greetings from Brazil

Sounds like a good plan...have you ever built a WFO before? What is your background? Masonry I hope..... I'm sure this forum will be happy to help. You might want to build a one for yourself as a demo. You will get an Idea of what your getting into. Good luck. I have also seen a demand for WFOs in my area since I built mine.

[brmarciorio]

Re: Greetings from Brazil

Thanks for replying Lwood!
Well....call me crazy...hahaha...
Never built an oven before....
I?m a manager for a truck maintenance service company...
Dont have a professional masonry background!!!! except having built two of our previous family brick houses with my father, grandfather and brother who were carpenters and masons. All three of them.
And yes. Building a first one for myself is the plan. Haven't done it before because I live in an apartment so I had no place to do so.
But the market gap is too big and wide open.
Now my employer gently offered me a small space to do it and kick the idea off.
I know it will be a challenge. But I?ve been building businesses from the ground up all my life.
Well....It?s true I recently went bankrupt with one of them and I?m virtually broke...LOL
But I?m tenacious and have succeded in other ventures and I think I?m capable of pulling this one off too!

Please don't laugh too hard!!!!

[brmarciorio]

Re: Greetings from Brazil

You will call even crazier after I tell you this:

I want to be the first one in Brazil to build, sell and deliver a Napoli type WFO!!!

Why?
There?s only one company in the entire country that builds and ships brick ovens and they are doing it poorly but selling them to the dozens. Mostly the one you can use with gas and wood. It has a thermostat that lights up the gas flame whenever heat is needed. They sell it very expensive for brazilian market (around 13,000US$ plus shipping) but the gadgets are cheap and easy to install in case someone asks for it.
It's built over a steel plate and the stand is sold in metal as an additional item, or the buyer has to build the stand anf floor. The buyer needs to solve the floor insulation by himself. And most of them dont do it. And the result you all know in therms of thermal efficiency.
And they look all the same.
Look at it:
Ivim Pelloso Escolhendo forno flex da NATELHA - YouTube
This is how they ship it:
Transporte de Fornos a Lenha e G?s - Forno Flex Fornos para Pizzas

And of course there are the assembling kits with doubtful quality and there are the builders. Most from S?o Paulo that have learned the craft mostly by trial and error and travel all over the country and charging big bucks for it.

Now...some specs:
the inner diameter from the comercial ovens here varies between 60" and 80" and the front oppening needs be wide enough to pass a 12" pizza in S?o Paulo... but in Rio it needs to support 18" pizza baking... Yeah...yeah...it?s a lot...I know...but that?s what the market is used to.

Why the Napoli type? Simple. No one uses WFO for anything else but pizzas and..... NO ONE else is manufacturing it!
How big of a challenge it seems to you? o.0

[lwood]

Re: Greetings from Brazil

60" to 80" that's a big oven!!! I have a 60" and it is a good size for commercial use. When you go to 80" you better count on buttressing. Even 60" is pushing it, especially if you are warranting the oven. Buttressing adds more cost. 18" pies are not really a problem, my opening is over 18".... it's the doe opening that's the challenge. You should be able to make an oven 60" dia for around $2,000 usd excluding any fancy finishes. Most of the materials should be available in Rio or Sao Paulo....although I don't think we have members there.....yet You might check on that. I would come up with your own way of doing it based on the FB plans. Shipping any kits is probably prohibitive. You have lots of options as to how to build it and what it will be used for. Sounds like mainly pizza,. but an entire restaurant can be based around the oven. Lots to learn about building and cooking in a WFO.....but it lots of fun also. Good luck

[brmarciorio]

Re: Greetings from Brazil

You?re right. They are too big. And it is not very wise to keep such a huge oven heated every day of the week since you just use it's full capacity on the weekends.
I intend to have only the 60" for commercial usage and if someone asks me for more my advice will be to have a second one ready for busy days. You'll save fuel money and work on lazy days.
US$2000 is the budget plan when I start to buy wholesale. To build the first one I'll spend some more. And yes, we have everything available here in Rio or SP. No need to import anything from the US excpet maybe for pizza making utensils like good pizza peels, oil cans and etc that you guys have much better ones than we do. (That?s a huge market as well!)
Shipping the final product around Brazil is no problem at all. It is worth doing it here and send them all over.
And yes...this forum is a blessing. I'm extremely thankful to all the knowledge you guys and FB have put together for dumb asses like me.
Thank you so much!