An insurance man most of his career, Greg Getzinger has found life as an inventor-entrepreneur in a new act.
His Portion PadL, a cutting board with guides to allow for even slices of pizza, is now used by Domino’s and Schwan’s for school-lunch programs. It’s also at Speedway convenience stores and Parasson’s for pizzas and garlic breads.
After 20 years in insurance, Getzinger decided to buy a Pizza BOGO franchise location in Hudson seven years ago.
When he and his pizza store manager, Will Shaw, were trying to cut slices evenly, they lamented there had to be a better way.
They were getting complaints from a local school serving slices for lunch.
“The staff was saying our cuts with the pizza rocker were uneven slices,” said Getzinger. “It’s human nature for us to look for the biggest slice.”
Smaller slices were left unwanted so the school asked for credits for pieces that weren’t big enough to meet dietary requirements, Getzinger said.
Getzinger said there were products on the market that would help cut slices evenly, but they tended to be like a cookie stamp. The worker would stamp the pizza but it wouldn’t cut easily and wasn’t easy to clean.
“This came out of a serious need,” he said. “If you’re selling by the slice, every slice is a profit center.”
The solution came in the middle of the night.
“I woke up at 4 in the morning and thought, ‘I should create the guides on a cutting board,’ ” he recalled.
He showed Shaw his drawings for what would become the Portion PadL (online at www.portionpadl.com).
His original Portion PadLs were made by a relative who was a woodworker. Then Getzinger realized that wood wasn’t the best material since food stayed in the grooves and the wood didn’t hold up well. He also realized that he could put the guides on both sides of the cutting board for more efficiency.
He tried a few more materials — resin and paper, but found it was too heavy for users. He finally settled on a lighter resin material and has two manufacturers in the state of Washington. Half of the Portion PadLs are handled by an Ohio distributor who uses local Amish workers to cut the grooves into the boards.
Domino’s, which bought the Portion PadLs for its franchise owners who sell to schools, was Getzinger’s first sale in July 2010. Speedway, one of Getzinger’s largest customers, came in late 2010 or early 2011.
Sales have been brisk since then. In the last 3½ years, he’s sold more than 3,200 units to individual pizzerias, franchises and companies.
Many of Getzinger’s clients ask for custom-made Portion PadLs. PadLs range in price from $124.95 for a one-sided PadL to $134.95 for a two-sided PadL. There is also a consumer Portion PadL for sale on Amazon.com for $74.95.
“When it’s that simple, employees aren’t going to question it. It’s like coloring within the lines,” Getzinger said.
V-shaped grooves on the edges allow for the pizza rockers to line up. The grooves sit below the pizza and don’t pinch the pizza crust when cutting, Shaw said.
Parasson’s owner Tony Parasson has the Portion PadLs in his four local restaurants for pizzas and also asked Getzinger to make a Portion PadL for garlic bread.
Parasson, whose father started the restaurant in 1960, said while he doesn’t sell his pizza by the slice, he wanted consistency for portions.
Parasson saw an advertisement for the Portion PadL in a trade magazine and was pleasantly surprised when he found out Getzinger was a fellow local businessman.
Parasson said he’s got other pizza cutters in storage that didn’t work as well.
Rick Drury, a retired New York City paramedic who now operates Precinct Pizza in Tampa, Fla., also uses the Portion PadL.
Before using the Portion PadL, he said, “We had to kind of eyeball it and cut slices as evenly as possible, but sometimes the cutter goes one way or the other and it didn’t give us the most perfectly even slices.”
Now, “we’ve never had a complaint that I want this particular slice. Each and every slice has the right shape and right size,” Drury said.
Getzinger has patents pending and won a judgment against a company that challenged the patent.
He also is introducing a new Portion PadL without a handle.
Removing the handle allows a sliced product to remain in a display case where it can stay fresh and not dry out. Retailers such as Speedway allow customers to serve themselves that way.
“Now, I’ll stand and look at a Speedway and watch people looking for the biggest slice when I know they’re all equal,” he said.
The handle-less Portion PadLs will be $74.95 each or $64.95 for three or more. Deliveries will start in January for the new product.
Getzinger declined to disclose sales figures but said “it supersedes what I make in the pizza shop.” He estimated his initial investment of $12,000 has been recouped and reinvested.
His Pizza BOGO location serves as his test kitchen. The Portion PadL is used in all six franchise locations of Pizza BOGO in Northeast Ohio.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty