Think of pizza and you’ll automatically think of Italy which is why the Kaak Group says it has turned to the land of pizza, pasta and Chianti as inspiration for its pizza lines.
The only difference between Kaak and the traditional Italian pizzeria is that the company’s pizza expert Italian company MCS based in the north of the country has designed plants that can produce up to 15,000 pizzas an hour.
MCS is considered to be one of the world’s leading specialist companies for pizza lines. The reasons for success are its expertise, built over a number of years, and the fact that each line is designed and developed on a bespoke basis.
Says Maurizo Tabarelli, head of MCS: "The type of plant we commission depends on the end-product and the intended sales and distribution channels fresh or frozen pizza, sheeted, cross-sheeted dough, pizza crusts in trays or directly pressed on the belt and sometimes even a combination of methods. No matter what the customer’s needs are, we supply the equipment and the tech-nical know-how."
Core parts of the product range are pizza plants, a wide range of automatic provers with swing trays, as well as the cyclotherm ovens from the Bakemaster series. The ovens, which heat the baked products with radiated, as well as convection, heat, are modular in design, allowing easy selection of the baking area, number of burners and burner performance.
Any type of wire mesh belts, hinge plate belts and, in particular, natural stone plates, are available. The stone plate supports are moved with heavy-duty chains located laterally on high temperature-proof ball bearings.
This oven is suitable for baking almost any kind of baked goods, from traditional bread (hearth-baked) to all types of panned bread, hearth rolls, small bakery items on trays, all kinds of fine bakery wares and even most pizza types, as the oven can reach a baking temperature of up to 300°C. Pizzas can be baked in one to two minutes.
The company also cuts down on dough handling and mess by pressing pizza crusts directly on to the oven belt before baking. This avoids the need to sprinkle flour on the dough during make-up. A light film is applied to the belt, the pizza crusts are pressed at a temperature of almost 100°C and they do not stick.

Growing demand for pizza lines
Some 50 major pizza plants have now been commissioned and the company is reporting a growing demand for new pizza lines. It is looking to make its oven technology even more efficient. The ovens it currently builds are usually equipped with two burner chambers, each of them with its own chimney, but the company is now developing a system in which the flue gases can circulate, so that only one chimney is required. MCS is also looking at developing belt provers, although they have concentrated mainly on swing tray provers in the past. Belt provers are an exciting option as they are more flexible.
Says David Marsh, managing director of Benier UK, which handles MCS in the UK: "MCS supplies many of the major pizza manufacturers throughout Europe. They are highly focused on this growth area and have a proven track record.
"As both MCS and Benier UK are part of the Kaak Group, our clients have expertise from a company with a proven track record plus a British company handling the project, making design, installation and commissioning as pain-free as possible."