‘UglyWare’ attracts interest

When pizza is delivered to your door, chances are it was baked on a pan made by Lloyd Industries Inc. of Spokane Valley.

The small manufacturer claims to be the nation’s largest commercial pizza pan manufacturer.

Lloyd Industries now wants to give retail sales a try by opening a store and test kitchen in downtown Spokane.

The baking product line will be sold under the brand name “UglyWare.” The name is a playful jab at the wares sold by Lloyd Industries, said spokesman Robert Stevens.

Commercial baking gear is all about professional performance – not fashion. And UglyWare is decidedly unattractive.

Most of Lloyd’s sales to pizza businesses were handled through its Web site. Yet people looking for a pizza pan able to withstand high temperatures and deliver the same sort of pie as a restaurant inevitably found their way to the Web site, Stevens said.

Because Lloyd’s only sells to commercial pizza makers, the business was turning away potential customers.

So the manufacturer, located in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park with 30 employees, will begin marketing and selling pans to serious home pizza makers.

The company hopes to open its first store early next year and eventually offer cooking classes by local chefs.

Stevens said buyers of the company’s pizza pans and other commercial quality baking dishes are the “Williams Sonoma demographic.

“We appeal to people serious about food, who demand quality,” he said.

The products can now be found online at www.goodbaking.com