Donatos Pizza will open its first fully autonomous, robot-operated location in June, venturing boldly into new territory where even U.S. pizza giants like Domino’s apparently fear to tread.
Donatos and its sister company, Agápe Automation, partnered with Appetronix to bring the new robotic restaurant to life. The fully automated pizzeria will debut before security in front of Concourse B at the John Glenn Columbus International Airport and will be operated by restaurateur HMS Host. The new autonomous kitchen will provide “fast and delicious made-to-order pizza for travelers,” the company said.
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“We’re not just adding tech to a restaurant,” said Kevin King, Donatos’ president and CEO. “We’re jumping in with a fully autonomous restaurant. But, most importantly, we’re going to continue to serve great-tasting, abundantly topped pizzas and provide a top-notch customer experience that Donatos has always been known for.”
“In a busy airport environment, where customers are most focused on catching their flights, we think the vending machine style location will be a huge success,” King added.
The autonomous restaurant will operate 24/7, leveraging state-of-the-art robotics and data science technologies—enabling an efficient experience for customers on everything from placing orders to receiving their pizza, according to a press release.
The robot also offers an engaging visual experience, allowing customers an inside look at their pizzas being freshly prepared in real time.
“Bringing this first-of-its-kind autonomous kitchen to life in collaboration with Donatos has been an extraordinary journey and marks a defining moment for the future of the restaurant industry,” said Nipun Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Appetronix, in a press release. “With our state-of-the-art, AI-powered robotic technology, we’re delivering hot, fresh pizza with unprecedented precision and efficiency. This is more than innovation—it’s a transformative leap for the QSR space, setting a new standard for consistency, speed and customer satisfaction.”
As PMQ Pizza reported in February, Sharma worked in hospitality and restaurant operations before founding Appetronix. “I’d say about a decade ago, we started seeing labor as a pretty intense problem in quick-service,” Sharma told PMQ at the time. “I was shutting down restaurants all over the world just because there weren’t enough employees showing up to work.”
Sharma envisions Appetronix as a different kind of restaurant robotics company. Instead of trying to work with multiple chains, he and his partners settled on Donatos specifically to help the brand scale via fully autonomous kitchens. And instead of selling or leasing the machines, Appetronix takes a small percentage of every sale made through the robots.
“We’re selling food, we’re not selling machines,” Sharma told PMQ. “So our philosophy is: Let’s partner with the best brand in different categories and help them launch restaurants. Then we’ll make an impact in the foodservice industry by taking away labor problems, being able to serve food 24/7, improving margins for everybody, and for us to make a lot of money selling food.”
Sharma is also convinced that his machines can make the kind of high-quality pizza that Donatos customers expect. “Because, otherwise, what’s the point?” he said. “You don’t want a machine that’s just reheating frozen pizzas. We’re serving restaurant-quality food because the big brands wouldn’t lend their name and their product if it takes away from the customer experience.”
Additionally, Donatos’ partnership with Appetronix promotes King’s recent four-point strategy, which focuses on creating new, innovative ideas that will disrupt the pizza scene.
“I’m incredibly proud of the innovation my dad, Jim Grote, has championed over the past 62 years,” said Jane Grote Abell, executive chairwoman of Donatos Pizza. “It’s in his DNA to constantly seek better ways to deliver the same consistent, high-quality pizza we’ve always served. At Donatos, we believe people are at the heart of innovation—and this fully automated location allows our guests to enjoy Donatos on the run, without sacrificing the experience. More innovation, more passion and more opportunities to eat great pizza—that’s what this is all about.”
