Hungarian pizza producer The DoughLAB is actively seeking UK distributors, foodservice wholesalers, and retail partners for its Madre range of hand-stretched sourdough pizzas.

The expansion comes as UK hospitality operators face ongoing labour pressures and shortage of specialist kitchen staff. In the British Chambers of Commerce’s first-quarter 2026 survey, 85% of hospitality respondents identified labour costs as a major pressure. Meanwhile, chef recruitment activity has risen sharply, with CV-Library recording 40,395 chef job advertisements between April and June 2026 — an 83.4% year-on-year increase according to the Craft Guild of Chefs.

The Madre range is formulated to allow hospitality teams to serve Neapolitan-style pizza without requiring a dedicated pizza chef on every shift. DoughLAB completes the fermentation, stretching, topping, and initial bake at its central production facility near Budapest, leaving kitchen staff only to thaw and complete a short final bake.

Live fermentation and volcanic stone par-baking

Unlike products made with inactive sourdough powders, Madre utilises an active liquid sourdough starter originating from Altamura in southern Italy, which is fed daily. The dough undergoes a 48-hour fermentation period with a hydration level of approximately 80%.

Each pizza is stretched and topped by hand using additive- and preservative-free ingredients, including DOP San Marzano tomatoes. The pizzas are par-baked on volcanic stone at approximately 450°C before entering a cryogenic liquid-nitrogen freezing tunnel at DoughLAB’s 2,000-square-meter facility in Szigetszentmiklós.

The ultra-rapid cryogenic freezing process creates smaller ice crystals than conventional methods, preserving the open cellular structure of the dough and the texture of the toppings upon thawing.

“We wanted to take the most difficult and unpredictable part of the process out of the restaurant and move it into a controlled environment,” said Josep Zara, co-founder and chief executive of The DoughLAB. “If the fermentation, stretching, ingredients and first bake can be controlled centrally, the restaurant team can concentrate on service instead of reproducing an entire specialist production process during every shift.”

Kitchen operations and capacity

For operators, the frozen pizzas eliminate raw dough handling and initial baking requirements. Once thawed, the pizzas take approximately 2 to 2.5 minutes to finish in an oven preheated to 250–350°C. This short bake time allows venues—including hotels seeking late-night food service options—to offer hot meals after primary kitchen shifts conclude.

The Szigetszentmiklós facility represents an investment of approximately 1.5 billion Hungarian forints. It was built with an initial production capacity of 27,000 pizzas per day, with scope to scale to 100,000 units per day. DoughLAB intends to maintain hand-stretching as part of the process at both output levels.

“The easiest way to increase output would be to automate everything,” Zara added. “But if you press this type of dough mechanically, you can destroy the structure that gives a Neapolitan pizza its characteristic rim. Working with living dough at this scale is difficult, but that is exactly why we decided to keep hand-stretching as part of the process.”

Madre is currently available in Hungary. The company plans to enter the UK through commercial supply agreements with foodservice wholesalers and distributors for hospitality venues, alongside direct distribution partnerships with retail chains.