There’s a slice of good news for pizza lovers this week as they can now get their favourite food fresh from a vending machine.

Just Pizza and Pasta on Wellington Street, Douglas, has installed the machine, the first of its type in the British Isles, which promises restaurant quality food in minutes.

The machine was officially launched by Mayor of Douglas Jon Joughin and his wife Angela alongside Just Pizza and Pasta owner Mitch Sorbie.

Mr Sorbie told the Manx Independent he has been looking at the idea of a pizza vending machine for some time, but had never found one that could deliver the quality he wanted until he met a company at a convention in London.

Once this machine is established, Mr Sorbie will be looking at the potential for others in the island or further afield as he has secured the British distributor licence from the French manufacturer.

In its first weekend of operation, the machine sold more than 70 pizzas.

Mr Sorbie said people he had spoken to had been ’astonished’.

He added: ’We’ve built up a good reputation here in the island for quality food.

’The whole goal was that it had to be restaurant quality food coming out of the vending machine.’

The pizzas are made by the chefs in the kitchen who half cook them before they are placed in a fridge unit at the back of the machine. The pizzas are then stored for a maximum of 48 hours at a temperature just above freezing.

Customers select their pizza or pizzas - the machine can cook two at a time - and the machine then takes it from the fridge and cooks it from above and below by an oven and a grill. In under four minutes, the pizza is delivered to the customer in a box. The machine can also deliver cold pizzas so people can take them home to cook but that function has not been activated at present.

The Mayor said he was impressed by the speed and quality and variety that the machine delivered.