Story of Ooni

Say Hello to Ooni- the world’s No. 1 pizza oven company.

Ooni revolutionised outdoor cooking and created a new category when we launched the world’s first portable pellet pizza oven in 2012. Since then Ooni pizza ovens mean you can cook world-class pizza in your own back garden in just 60 seconds. Yes it’s true! Ooni ovens heat up to a colossal (500°C) 932°F in 20 minutes or less, and cost a fraction of the price of traditional wood-fired ovens. These pizza ovens are game changers!

Why we do what we do

“Everyone deserves great pizza” (It’s simple but it’s a fact. This is our ‘why’ and it fuels our fire (all puns intended).

How it all happened

Ooni was founded by husband-and-wife team, Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland. Before Ooni Kristian and Darina were running an education company to promote creativity, innovation and problem solving within school communities.

Speaking of problems, Kristian had one: he was really getting into making pizza but he was frustrated— ‘my pizzas are good, but they’re not great.’ The pizzas Kristian was able to make at home lacked that restaurant-quality taste that comes from a very high heat. His domestic oven simply wasn’t cutting it.

Kristian went on the hunt for a wood-fired pizza oven to use in his backyard, but the only products on the market were eye-wateringly expensive and bulky. Kristian wasn’t an inventor, an engineer or a product designer, but he knew he had a great idea. After a series of sketches, many prototypes and ongoing backyard testing, Kristian created the world’s first ever portable wood-fired pizza oven. Ooni – the  fast, portable, cost-effective, kick-ass wood-fired oven was born! YES!

Launching Ooni

With a vision for great pizza for the world and an innovative prototype, Kristian and Darina launched their first Ooni oven project on Kickstarter in November 2012. They quickly swept past their funding goal, and Ooni established a global audience from the outset. It turns out there’s little that unites people more than awesome pizza! It blew folks’ minds to cook incredible pizza in just 60 seconds using their own outdoor oven, for such an affordable price. The product quickly drew supporters, media and retailer interest from around the world.

The story so far

Since our launch Ooni has grown into a multi award-winning business that sells products all over the world. Ooni’s founders are so stoked to have brought in a mindblowing team of international dynamos. HQ’d in Scotland we also have Ooni team members in the US and mainland Europe. We live, work, play and hire by our values and we think this shows.

Innovation is core to Ooni and we’ve gone on to release new awesome pizza oven models – including Ooni 3, Ooni Pro and Ooni Koda – as well as hardwood pellets our ovens run on wood, charcoal and gas so now there’s an Ooni for everyone. We also have a range of must-have accessories + Ooni ‘merch’ for pizza lovers.

We are so grateful for Ooni’s passionate community and are pumped to say that our customer + media reviews are outstanding. What’s that? WIRED has named us The Best Pizza Oven? (*Blushes!)

Ooni’s reputation and innovative products have attracted partnerships with some of the world's most trusted and respected global retailers and distributors. We build partnerships based on authenticity and shared values.

At Ooni, two of our core values are passion and kindness. We’re passionate about enabling everybody to cook and enjoy great pizza, as well as about being a company for good – we believe that businesses have a responsibility to have a positive impact on the world. That’s why 1% of our annual turnover is actively managed for social and environmental causes.

Ooni: The Future

With brilliant products, an innovative product road map, our Impact Fund, stand-out customer service, a world-class team and a fully fired up global community, we’re excited about the future. Peace and pizza to the people.

If you want to know more, get in touch. If you love Ooni THANK YOU! Share the love via a slice with your friends.

 

(Ooni changed the spelling of its name from Uuni to Ooni in July 2018 – read more about this change here.)