It's no dough for Domino's as Italy says ciao

In the end it was all too much, US takeaway giant Domino’s attempt to grab a slice of the lucrative market in Italy fell flat in the home of pizza as the local franchise holder shuttered its outlets.

The attempt to make a crust by introducing Italians to toppings like pineapple and cheeseburger ended up with the brand finally saying ‘arrivederci’ after filing for bankruptcy in April.

Domino’s Pizza Italia opened its first outlet in Milan in 2015, as part of a franchising agreement with local company, ePizza. There was good reason for it to have high hopes as pizza home delivery was not a large market in the country.

It established 34 outlets, but the unintended boom in food home delivery during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns meant other operators adopted the same app-based model.

In the April court filing, ePizza said food delivery platforms like Deliveroo, Glovo or Just Eat had “notably increased the competition”.

"The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent and prolonged restrictions from a financial point of view have seriously damaged ePizza," the company said.

As part of the bankruptcy ePizza was granted protection from its creditors for 90 days, which ended in July. The firm had already scaled back the business from its peak in 2020, while deliveries stopped from the end of July.

Domino’s is the world's largest pizza chain with more than 18,300 stores in 90 international markets, most of which are run as franchisees.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com