Variety's the spice of German pizza, as rivals strive to top each other: how do Germans love their pizza? Let us count the ways: Stone oven, unbaked, thin crust, doughy crust, organic, Italian, American, children's, in XL size, as mini snacks and more.

They're frozen flesh. They're easy to prepare. They taste good, and the assortment is huge. Which explains why per capita frozen pizza consumption in Germany, according to the Deutsche Tiefkuhlinstitut (dti), passed three kilograms for the first time in 2006.

Pizza remains Germany's biggest selling frozen food product. Nielsen reported in 2006 that of the Top 100 selling frozen items, no fewer than 35 were pizzas, and they accounted for 45% of the total. Of all those products, Wagner's Piccolini Salame Pizza was number two. Only a fish stick beat it out.

Striving for innovation continues. "The consumer wants variety, especially in a product like pizza that is eaten frequently," said one industry executive in a recent interview with a German magazine.

And variety is what the consumer gets. One of the newest innovations to hit the market has been branded organic pizza in the supermarkets, a recognition of the fact that organic is big in Germany, with overall sales increasing 15% a year. The two market leaders, Dr. Oetker and Wagner, came out almost simultaneously in late 2006 with their versions.

Other recent innovations have been Flammkuchen, an Alsatian delicacy that's being marketed like pizza, and pizzas with a ciabatta base, taking advantage of the booming popularity of that special Italian bread. Pizza makers also take advantage of the trends to wellness (low fat ones) and snacks (minis and slices). They've gone upscale to bring older consumers into the market. They've gotten spicy; they've gotten big for the especially hungry, and they come unbaked for those who like flaky crusts and an appetizing fragrance in the kitchen. They come in multipacks, and Schwan's is even rolling a sauce into crust at the edge.

According to figures from the dti, the three kilograms the average German now consumes is more than double what was eaten 10 years ago--up 1.6 kilograms. Consumption was 245,000 tons in 2006, compared to 116,000 tons in 1996. The lion's share of these pizzas, 94%, are sold at retail, including the home delivery services and the discounters. The foodservice share of frozen pizza was 14,000 tons.

It's hardly an exaggeration to say that the frozen pizza market in Germany has a top and a bottom, but hardly any middle. At the top are the two giants: Dr. Oetker of Bielefeld (Fax: +49 521-155-3030), which has bought much of Unilever's pizza business, and Wagner Tiefkuhlprodukte of Nonnweiler-Braunshausen (Fax: +49 6873-665491), of which Nestle is a big stockholder. Between them they control more than 70% of the market for branded pizzas. Oetker still has the larger slice of this pie, but Wagner is moving up. From January to May 2007, according to Nielsen, it had 25.4% of the market (excluding Aldi stores), compared to 24.6% in 2006.

At the bottom are the bargain-priced private label pizzas sold mainly in the giant discount grocery chains like Aldi and Lidl. This too is big business and there are a number of players here. Wagner also serves the store brand market, while Oetker does not.

Other players are Schwan's Food of Osterweddingen (Fax: +49 39205-432550); Freiberger Lebensmittel of Berlin (Fax: +49 30-40704202), Europe's largest supplier of store brands; Galileo Lebensmittel of Trierweiler (Fax: +49 651-82792-33), which specializes in mini-pizza and snack products; and Hasa of Burg (Fax: +49 3921-4828-28), a relative newcomer to the scene.

Trying to get established in the middle presents a real challenge. But the firms named, and others, keep trying. Perhaps they are mindful of the fate of Iglo. This brand, then a part of Unilever, had 60% of the European pizza market in the 1980s, but now has completely withdrawn from it.

Organic Market Still Heating Up

Organic pizza isn't a particularly new idea. Wagner has been producing it for some time under different brand names for health food stores, and Freiberger was out with it in Great Britain as long ago as 2000. What's new is that it is no longer a niche category. Organic pizza has gone into the supermarkets with other organic foods, bearing the brand names of the biggies. And its price, 2.59 to 2.89 euros, is hardly more than other branded pizzas.

The organic entry from Wagner is "Original Wagner Natur Lust," which it offers in three of its classical forms; salami, four-cheese and mushroom. Dr. Oetker calls its organic entry Ristorante Biologica, and presents it in two forms: Biologica Speziale, with cheese, salami, tomatoes, mushrooms and ham; and Mozzarella, with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.

Organic pizza has already reached the discount stores. The Plus chain offers Pizza Vegetaria under its BioBio brand.

Though its production is mainly for the discounters, the new company, Hasa, presents an organic pizza under its own brand name: Italissimo. All producers assure the customers that the product is made under controlled ecological conditions and free of additives. The packages are usually green and bear the six-sided European organic seal.

Flammkuchen comes on a dough base, like pizza, but is very different as to topping. It features onions, creme fraiche and smoked meat rather than cheese and tomato. Nevertheless, it has taken the shape of pizza (it used to be rectangular) and is offered in the freezer alongside traditional pizza. Oetker recently had a special promotion for its Bistro Flammkuchen, offering a wooden board of the sort that Flammkuchen is served on in France [see story above], and Wagner is in the race with Herzhafter Flammkuchen.

Ciabatta, an Italian bread from a very wet dough containing olive oil, has become very popular in Germany of late, and Oetker has seized on the trend, using the bread for the base of its Ciabatone range. It comes in four varieties: Mozzarella Pompodori, Calabrese Salami, Tonno and Formaggi Misti. The name Ciabatta is Italian for bedroom slipper, and refers to the shape of the loaf.

Snack Pizzas have been getting smaller and smaller. Oetker began with the half-sized Piccola and then went on to the Piccolissimo, with nine to a standard package. Wagner offers Piccolinis, likewise nine to a pack. But Galileo claims that it has come up with the "correct" mini pizza in its Pico-Bella. It is six centimeters in diameter, and, according to Managing Director Stefano La Vecchia, the only one on the market that is that size. It's not only ideal for children, he claims, but also good for use as an appetizer and as an accompaniment for a drink. With the PiccoBelli, he told Quick Frozen Foods International magazine, "We have on the one hand firmed up our strong position in the snack market, and on the other hand regained our foothold in the pizza market."

Snack pizzas have also reached the discount stores. Paplina of Apolda offers Pizza-Slices Hawaii under the brand McEnnedy American Way.

Schwan's, which knows something about the American way, presents its mini pizzas under the Freschetta brand name with SpongeBob pictured on the package. Schwan's German plant exports to much of Europe, as demonstrated by the fact that the instructions on Freschetta mini pizza boxes are in six languages.

If small pizzas are big on the market, perhaps big ones can be also. Sometimes the consumer is particularly hungry. And that is why Schwan's recently introduced the Freschetta XL to the German market. It's big, at 510 grams; comes unbaked for the do-it-yourself cook, and also has a cheese sauce rolled up in the outer crust. It's a little brother of the Freschetta XXL which, at 750 to 800 grams, was even bigger, but didn't sell well in Germany. They liked it in other countries, notably Scandinavia and Spain, where, it would seem, the people tend more to share their food. Germans apparently like individual portions, so the pizza was reduced one size, and retails at 3.79 euros.

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Schwan's hopes that it at last has a winner for the German market. It came to Germany in 1998 with a half-century of American know-how behind it. The company produces mainly house brands for stores all over Europe, and claims to be the dominant supplier in Denmark and Iceland, with 60% and 65% of the markets, respectively. Before coming to Germany it had become the market leader in Great Britain, but the products that had led to its success there didn't work in Deutschland. The crust was too thick, the diameter too great, the sauce too spicy, the price too high and the competition too entrenched.

So Schwan's has learned that the European markets are very individual; that salami, a must for pizza in Germany, doesn't especially appeal to Scandinavians, who go for Bolognese and ham. Its plant is near Magdeburg, in an area that suffers from high unemployment and provides numerous incentives for employers to locate there.

These incentives also drew the new company, Hasa, to the Magdeburg area. Its very modern, specially built plant at Burg went into operation in 2006, producing mainly house brands for the discounters. Among many others it offers an assorted seafood pizza under the brand name Da Marco.

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However, it also has a brand of its own, Italissimo, and produces the premium Kafer label for a Munich dealer in upscale groceries. Cofounder Andreas Czayka claims that his factory for the first time permits a complete industrialization of the traditional Italian pizza craft.