Apparently, you can’t sell American pizza to Italians. And world-popular pizza chain Domino’s learned that the hard way. According to multiple reports, Domino’s has closed all of its locations in Italy and is ceasing all operations in the country that does pizza better than anyone in the world.
Domino’s entered the Italian market in 2015 through a 10-year franchise deal with ePizza SpA. The company was optimistic about its chances at the time, especially since the pizza delivery concept wasn’t common in Italy at the time.
However, Domino’s never reached the expected growth, getting to 23 stores owned by ePizza SpA and six more owned by sub-franchisees. Things really turned to worse once the pandemic hit, and Domino’s started facing more competition than ever while doing business in tough conditions. The family-owned pizza shops and local food joints started doing business with food-delivery services like Glovo and Deliveroo, taking the lion’s share of the pizza delivery market from Domino’s and sinking its profits.
Domino’s never managed to recover from this, which ended up forcing ePizza SpA to file for bankruptcy earlier this year. In the court filing, the company identified a “significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organized chains and ‘mom & pop’ restaurants delivering food to survive” as the reason for its demise.
Domino’s currently has 18,300 stores in more than 90 countries worldwide. Its biggest market in Europe is the UK and Ireland where there are 1,200 Domino’s locations.