Ooni rebuilds growth after post-pandemic sales slump hit pizza oven business

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Ooni rebuilds after sales slump

Highlights

Ooni's annual sales fell from a peak of £208mn during the pandemic to lower levels by 2024, triggering operating losses and significant job cuts.
Karthik Iyer, appointed CEO in 2023, led workforce reductions to 210 employees globally and has returned the company to profit in 2025, albeit far below its £45mn operating profit in 2021.
Ooni faces intensified competition from Gozney, Breville, and Shark Ninja, while U.S. tariffs and a premium brand pivot challenge its growth in its largest market.

Turnround effort after rapid expansion

As reported by Financial Times, Ooni’s breakneck pandemic-era rise gave way to a difficult reset as sales dropped from a peak reached during the outdoor cooking boom and profits moved into loss by 2024.

Co-founders Darina Garland and Kristian Tapaninaho had expected demand to keep building after annual sales climbed to £208mn as the brand expanded internationally. Instead, the company entered a period marked by weaker sales, rising competition, higher costs and job cuts, forcing the founders to accept that the business needed more professional management as it scaled.

That shift has included the appointment of Karthik Iyer as chief executive last year. The U.S.-based executive, who previously worked at Dyson and Dell, says the founders have given him room to make changes, even when those decisions are uncomfortable. Ooni cut 75 jobs in 2024 and another 50 last year, leaving it with 210 employees globally.

Ooni says sales rose by single-digit millions in 2025 and returned to a similar level of profit. Even so, that remains well below the company’s £45mn operating profit at its 2021 peak, underlining how far the recovery still has to go.

Premium brand strategy faces competitive pressure

Ooni began after Tapaninaho, frustrated by the inability of a home oven to reach the 500C needed for Neapolitan-style pizza, helped develop a portable wood-fired oven with Garland. The pair raised an initial £17,000 in pre-orders on Kickstarter, and the smaller, lower-cost ovens quickly attracted buyers from the U.S. to Australia.

The company, headquartered in Edinburgh with a U.S. office in Austin, Texas, has manufactured its ovens in China since 2015, while the U.S. accounts for about half of global sales. Its financial position has given it resilience through the downturn, as the business remains wholly owned by Garland, Tapaninaho and the management team apart from an early £72,000 friends-and-family round.

Competition has intensified as more groups enter the market, including rivals such as Gozney as well as larger consumer brands including Breville and Shark Ninja. In response, Ooni is trying to define itself more clearly as a premium brand, with Tapaninaho leading about 50 staff in product innovation and the company expanding last year into kitchen equipment with a £700 professional-style spiral dough mixer.

That strategy now faces fresh pressure from tariffs on exports to the U.S., its most important market. Ooni’s recovery gives it a stronger base than during the immediate post-pandemic shock, but the company still needs faster growth and stronger profits to fund product development and defend its position in a more crowded sector.

In our earlier article, we looked at Bath & Body Works beating first-quarter sales and profit expectations as demand held up for its “affordable luxury” items such as home fragrances and personal care products. We also noted the company keeping its full-year outlook unchanged while broadening distribution via Amazon and preparing for a CFO transition to an interim finance chief.

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