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It's about 10am on a Tuesday and inside their black-fronted Hell headquarters Callum Davies and Stu McMullin are kneading dough for their pizza bases. They do this six days a week, up to 11 hours a day - prepping, making and then serving their special Kiwi pizzas.
It's
been a while since these two young New Zealanders were in a kitchen, well working in one anyway.
They opened their first Hell store in Fulham, west London five weeks ago. Remarkably, it's already breaking even, but they are playing down their early success
"We think it's going OK. It could be doing better, we would like to be a lot busier, but every week it's building and we are getting a lot of new customers all the time," says McMullin.
Not only has Hell taken these two business partners to the other side of the world, it's also taken them back to where they began 11 years ago - into the kitchen, making pizzas.
It's been a while since they have had such a hands-on role in their business, but they're not complaining, "the funnest [sic] times I've ever had are working in a pizza kitchen," McMullin says.
"There is nothing better than someone having a wicked pizza.
"I can't think of many places where someone comes in for food and at the end of their food experience they come to counter to tell you how good it is."
One difference with the UK Hell is the setting. In Fulham, Hell has gone a little more upmarket with a 50-seater restaurant, featuring six-foot black leather booths with red flames licking up the sides, copper tables and custom-made chandeliers.
The Hell theme is strong, but not overpowering, problem is, Davies says, some of the Poms just don't seem to get it.
"Some people come in and go, 'this is awesome'. Some people come in and go, 'I'm really, really shocked at what you have done and this is disgusting'."
The London audience is a bit harder to impress with something new, however.
"If we opened somewhere new in New Zealand, people go, 'I really have got to try that place', they come in, check you out and if you are good they come back. But over here if they see something new they don't embrace it, they don't come in and try it," says Davies.
High rent deposits and legal costs, council rates, bank fees and basic administration costs have made this a costly exercise.
They have invested more than $1.5 million into their UK venture but that's only made them more determined, "you can't bitch and moan about it or you would just be like a Pom, you've got to find a better way of doing it".
The pair hope the UK operation will evolve in a similar way to their New Zealand business.
"We have got to get three months solid trade in, doing better than break even and seeing good pizza numbers. As soon as we are happy with that, then we will look at franchising, we have got people beating down our doors to do that," McMullin says.
There seems little doubt these two determined pizza lovers will succeed, if nothing else the London endeavour has renewed their passion and love for the Hell brand.
McMullin sums it up: "I don't like to fail and Callum doesn't like to fail and we are both competitive dudes. I've got to give it a really good crack."
