In a surprising and highly counterintuitive piece of news, one of the world’s most famous and biggest pizza makers has failed to impress the people who invented the popular dish in the first place. American fast food giant Domino’s Pizza has packed its bags and left Italy after struggling to find a place in the hearts and tummies of Italians.
Yes, you heard it right! In fact, Domino’s hasn’t been in the European nation for long, having entered the market only in 2015. However, its idea to impress Italians with an American version of their own dish appears to have failed royally.
Deciding to shut shop in Italy, Domino’s Pizza has now closed all of its 29 joints in the country, with the last one shutting shop on Tuesday, it was reported. The disastrous campaign is summed up by the contrast in what it achieved in comparison to its initial megaplan in Italy to open 800 pizza places.
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Why Domino's pizzas failed to impress Italians?
The Italian cuisine is known for its rustic look and feel and taste. Thus, the franchise based, fast food pizzas did not hit the mark with people of Italy who go for the home cooked, rustic dishes. Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic brought up surprise changes. The fact that people were restricted to their homes led to more pizzas being delivered. While that might have worked well for the American fast food giant in some geographies, in Italy it meant competition from the local favourites who also went the delivery route now. Domino’s had planned to beat the competition in the delivery game by partnering with a company ePizza SpA.
“We attribute the issue to the significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organised chains and ‘mom & pop’ restaurants delivering food, to service and restaurants reopening post-pandemic and consumers out and about with revenge spending." ePizza reportedly said.
Domino’s Italy business had a reported outstanding debt of $10.8 million in 2020 where it was able to keep off lenders with the help of a court order. However, with the expiry of the legal release, the fast food giant decided to close remaining stores and exit the country.
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