Domino’s Pizza withdraws from Italy

Two years ago, media reports told the Italian company plans to open 850 stores over the next decade, aiming to acquire a 2% stake in the country’s pizza market.

By 2021, 34 restaurants will bear the Domino brand. A representative for Domino’s Pizza Italia also welcomed the opening of his fifth restaurant in Rome, suggesting Italians were open to American-style pizza. . There were Italians who were “not afraid to put pineapple on their pizza,” the representative said.

But the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.

With restaurants and bars closed for extended periods during various lockdowns, many began adopting the take-out and delivery model that Domino’s Pizza was trying to dominate in Italy.According to April legal documents in Milan He said the proliferation of food delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, Glovo and Just Eat has “increased the competition significantly” for ePizza.

Representatives for ePizza and Domino’s Pizza in the US and Italy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Other culinary ventures that naysayers said were doomed to failure in Italy are doing very well. Many said that one would ignore the company’s maxi size and its price. However, the American company’s Italian licensee, Percassi, has opened 18 stores across northern and central Italy, including drive-thru.

Alessandro Lazzaroni, who served as CEO of Domino’s Pizza Italia for five years, left the company in December 2020 and is now a luxury pizzeria started by Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, former director of Benetton and Renault F1 Racing. , CEO of Crazy Pizza. team. Crazy Pizza made headlines in Italy this summer after a Neapolitan pizza maker complained that its pizza was too expensive.

And after all, Italians are picky about pizza.

Stefano Auricchio, secretary-general of the Association to Protect “Authentic Neapolitan Pizza”, said he was disappointed to hear that Domino’s Pizza had closed.

That said, he thought Italians have evolved their pizza palate in recent years and are looking more for “artisan products” than chain brands. “There is a tendency,” he said.

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According to a study recently commissioned by the association, Neapolitan pizza evokes concepts of “quality, happiness and family,” and that large pizza chains with “standardized offerings” struggled to match.

“Neapolitan pizza is the mother of all pizzas, and so is Italian pizza,” he said. “It all started here.”

But the food continues. The former Domino’s Pizza site on a busy Roman street closed Tuesday. was Gino Piada”