This vending machine makes a California Pizza Kitchen pizza in 90 seconds. Now 1,000 could be coming

Tucked in America’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, a California Pizza Kitchen-branded kiosk whips up barbecue chicken pizza; macaroni and cheese; and spaghetti, kung pao or Bolognese, in just 90 seconds. On busy days, travelers order 140 pizzas. Following a small pilot at airports in Dallas and Boston, the restaurant operator announced on Friday it plans to roll out up to 1,000 of these autonomous vending machines over the next three years at airports, universities, hospitals, hotels, and office complexes. California Pizza Kitchen, which operates 104 company-owned restaurants and has 32 franchise locations, says kiosks will help extend the brand in new locations where traffic is high, but dining options can at times be limited as the industry is constrained by high labor and food costs. The kiosks can make 7-inch pizzas sold at an average price of $12 per pie using the same ingredients found in California Pizza Kitchen’s physical restaurants. Michael Beacham, president of the brand’s parent company, California Pizza Kitchen Global, tells Fast Company that the brand has high name recognition due to a multiyear push to sell frozen goods at more than 20,000 retail gr…