October 5, 2004

BY ERIC HERMAN Business Reporter

If pizzas are getting delivered to your house faster, thank Middleby Marshall.

The division of Elgin-based Middleby Corp. introduced the "WOW" pizza oven this year. And the product is finding its way into Pizza Huts, Domino's and Potbelly's across the country.

"Our customers are very competitive, and they want to deliver the pizza faster," said Mark Sieron, a Middleby general manager who helped invent the oven. "Speed to them is very important."

The WOW oven does more than cook things fast. It saves energy, following Middleby's patented "Energy Management System." First developed in 2000, the EMS reduced an oven's energy use by 30 percent. WOW cuts energy use by an additional 25 percent, Sieron said -- meaning the oven is 50 percent more energy efficient than the 1999 industry standard.

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Sieron developed the WOW oven with the assistance of a team that included Senior Design Engineer Jack Wiker and Manager of Engineering Labs Mohan Panicker. Their initial research stemmed from the rising energy costs faced by Middleby's customers. After cutting those costs with the EMS system, the team went to work again.

Middleby dominates the market for conveyor pizza ovens. Unlike old-fashioned deck ovens, which require pizzas to be slid in and out, a conveyor oven does all the work. Most pizza chains use them, as do sandwich shops like Potbelly's.

The WOW oven cuts a pizza's "belt speed," or cooking time, to five-and-a-half minutes from seven-and-a-half minutes. That means places like Jimmy John's can serve more customers even as it advertises -- and charges for -- "gourmet" sandwiches, and Domino's can deliver faster or to a wider area. The oven creates a more pleasant workplace, too, since the oven stays cooler on the outside.

It operates by shooting jets of hot air at food from above and below. Operating at a constant temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the jets grow stronger when a pizza or sandwich sits on the conveyor belt, and decrease when nothing is in the oven, thus conserving energy.

"It's a smart oven," Sieron said.

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