The American pizza chain Domino’s has no longer been awarded a long life in the motherland of the cult dish. The group has left Italy and has closed the last of 29 branches after seven years, according to financial news agency Bloomberg. The Americans originally had big plans and wanted to open 880 restaurants. Large loans were also taken out for this. But the Italians preferred their own version of pizza over the ones from the United States.
The chain came to Italy in 2015 through a franchise agreement with ePizza SpA. She wanted to offer a nationwide delivery service and differentiate herself from Italian offerings – with pizza toppings that are unusual for Italy but popular in the US, such as pineapple, which is much discussed among pizza gourmets.
Corona puts a huge damper
During the pandemic, the chain defaulted on payments and went under a protective shield of creditors. Traditional pizza makers had expanded their deliveries or pizzerias contracted with third-party suppliers such as Deliveroo Plc, Just Eat Takeaway.com NV or Glovo to bring their margheritas, diavolas, sicilianas and co to customers’ homes.
“Significantly increased competition”
“We attribute the problem to significantly increased competition in the grocery delivery market,” the company told investors in 2021, Bloomberg reported. No response to questions now. According to the latest audited annual reports, the company had debts of 10.6 million euros at the end of 2020.
Still, it came as a surprise to some Italian customers that the American pizza maker bit his teeth in Italy. They reached out to the chain on Italian social media channels, asking why their calls and orders weren’t going through, or why their local store isn’t opening anymore.
Chain also represented in Austria
Domino’s is publicly traded, was founded in the 1960s and has approximately 14,000 locations worldwide with over 13,000 employees in more than 80 countries. In the autumn of 2017, a first branch in Austria was opened in Vienna.
Up to 40 locations had been announced for the federal capital to deliver nationwide, with further locations planned in other larger cities. So far there have been ten in Vienna – in this country there was recently a slightly declining annual turnover of 5.71 million euros.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
