Unox is a well-known Italian brand founded and owned by Enrico Franzolin, who bought 50% of the company when it was in a dwindling convection business in 1991 and went on to become its sole owner in 2005. He has been joined and supported in this journey by his daughter Chiara Franzolin, director of operations, and her husband Nicola Michelon, CEO of Unox global. Of late, Unox has been making a strong foothold in India, the Middle East and South Africa apart from other countries across the globe.

Recently, the company launched its India Experience Centre at its head office in Sector 62, Gurugram. It also launched its latest oven Speed-X, which brings in a brand-new class of commercial-grade ovens and adds another milestone in the company’s journey. Unox India’s managing director, Vikram Goel, was joined by Director of Customer Experience Matt Roberts, who had flown in from Unox’s UAE headquarters to be a part of the celebration. Together, they made the official announcement of opening the first Unox India office and an experience centre. 

 

 

Talking about the journey of the company, Goel said that Unox, which started in 1990, has been manufacturing ovens for more than 30 years. In India, it has been selling for over four years through distributors. There wasn’t a direct representation though. “Last year, around the same time, when I came on board, the company thought of investing into the Indian market and launched itself as a brand,” says Goel, who conceptualised the experience centre and built his team of ten people, a network of distributors and services. “We are ready to announce our presence in the market by launching our India Experience Centre,” says Goel, adding that Unox started by clocked half a million euros worth of sales and has grown to sales worth two million euros. “We see ourselves going at least 100% year after year for the next four years,” says Goel.

 

Speed ovens entail big investment ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. “It’s like you’re buying a car. People like to take a car for a test drive before they buy it. Similarly, when they are looking to invest in the technology of a speed oven, they would want to test the product: see it, taste the food, and then decide to buy. That’s precisely the reason for opening this centre where we invite our customers to visit and use it as their R&D kitchen,” says Goel. Having an experience centre, he says, builds credibility and conviction in the minds of the customers about the brand that it is here to stay. “When someone buys the oven, the life of which is about eight to ten years, the parent company must be around to provide servicing or any other customer need,” he says. 

For Unox, anyone who is commercially doing more than 30 meals a day is a potential customer: it is ideal for restaurants, private catering, schools, hospitals, super markets, and bakeries, etc. “We have customers walking in and testing the machines every day. We have all the other equipment to support them to carry out their R&Ds,” says Goel. Unox also has corporate chefs on board to guide the buyers. “Utilisation is great. On an average, we have close to 1,000 customers visiting us in a year and we’d keep growing that number. If things go as per plan, we aim to open a similar experience centre in Bengaluru and Mumbai and offer the same support to all our customers across the country,” Goe says.

 

 

At Unox, says Goel, customer benefit is a priority and a part of the company’s overall ethos. “It’s not about selling machines to people but about giving solutions to people. And when we offer the right solutions, sales happen,” he says, adding that the company has created a good service network in a short time. At the moment, it has five distributors with a pan-India service network. They have been trained to service Unox units. The company has its own service manager whose job is to train the service personnel of its distributors. It has created independent service companies who are not authorised to sell but are only servicing Unox machines. “At the moment, our tier I is well-covered. Tier I cities have directors for our service network. We have stocked our spare parts in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru,” says Goel.

 

Machines/units are manufactured in Italy and transported to India. Unlike many companies, Unox has six factories to support the manufacturing of these ovens and is not dependent on a third party company. So, 95% of the unit is made in-house. “We are perhaps the only company that grew during the pandemic even while the hospitality industry was severely hit. Unlike other brands, we were not dependent on a third party for sourcing parts, etc,” says the MD.

 

 

The Unox convections rule the market in terms of numbers. They are very popular with bakers who use convection ovens. It starts typically at Rs 50,000 and goes up to Rs 3,50,000. Besides regular convections, Unox also has combi ovens that can cook anything and is designed to withstand all conditions; Unox combi ovens can be used as convection ovens, in dry air mode, as steam ovens, in steam mode and in mixed mode; that is dry air and steam. “The combis are the next bestsellers which only started selling in India about 12 years ago, but are selling now in big numbers. Speed-X has the potential to become our next bestseller. This is completely going to revolutionize the Indian kitchen,” says Goel.  

 

He adds that it is for the first time that a combi and a speed oven have been clubbed to make one machine. Unox, incidentally, is the first company to make it. “There is no comparison to this technology globally and this will really change the dynamics. The highlight of this oven is speed; the cooking time is reduced to 1/4th. It is highly interactive; so, one can go on to the screen and video call anyone, maybe a chef. If you want to speak to the Unox India chef you can. If you want guidance, you can get it then and there. It’s something very unique that has not been experienced across the industry,” he says.

 

Unox implemented familiar technologies from its existing cooking equipment range, such as Steam.Maxi and Adaptive.Cooking, but many of these are also optimised for the new Speed-X. For example, Multi.Time programming, the technology that allows users to cook different products at different times in the same oven, will allow up to 10 dishes to be prepared at once.

This ground-breaking innovation removes the need for compromise and enhances the efficiency and standard of cooking operations. It cooks food 60 per cent faster than its predecessors, thanks to its two fans, and because of the revolutionary ‘Hyper’ Speed technology, which combines steam, air, and microwave. Food can be heated, cooked, and browned in a matter of seconds. For instance, a sea bass fillet is completely cooked in just 90 seconds, and a toasted chicken tikka kebab is ready in just 180 seconds.

 

Unox has also equipped Speed-X with cutting-edge technology such as the advanced Digital.ID operating system which utilizes artificial intelligence along with Hyper.Connection, and an intuitive interface that would allow users to control and navigate through the oven easily. “The Speed-X is the first oven to combine the capabilities of a combi oven and those of a speed oven, with an additional self-cleaning capability,” says Goel. He added “This not only increases the oven’s functionality beyond what was previously conceivable but also enables a remarkable rise in commercial kitchen efficiency.”

Unox has seen consistent gains in market share across the commercial cooking equipment sector and has ambitious plans for growth in 2022-2023. According to Nicola Michelon, the company is on the path to increase its global revenues from €182 million last year to €230 million in 2022 with the goal of reaching €336 million by 2025.

  

Unox India has experienced monumental growth over the year, with over 80 per cent increase in staff, and regional coverage spanning the entirety of India. Driven by product innovation and the company’s ability to offer ongoing support to customers and partners alike, Unox India continues to grow and reach wider markets.