In the birthplace of pizza, the Hawaiian has nothing to do with the traditional margarita. After having closed the last of its establishments in summer, the American chain Domino's Pizza in Italy has gone into liquidation and has thrown in the towel after seven years without being able to conquer the demanding palates of Italian diners.
The franchise operator of the US fast food brand, ePizza SpA, filed for bankruptcy in April and has now entered the final phase of the liquidation process, after filing all the required documentation with a court in Milan. According to Bloomberg, the process could end with a recovery of as little as 5% of creditors' exposure, according to a draft restructuring plan presented last year by the Milan-based firm.
Domino's Pizza, one of the largest pizza chains in the world, landed in the transalpine country in 2015 through a franchise agreement with ePizza SpA. Its objective was to gain part of the Italian market – which obviously had a huge offer of local pizzerias – through two routes, a delivery service with its own delivery men and a different offer than traditional Italian pizzas, more focused on popular tastes in the United States, such as Hawaiian – which includes (for Italians) dreaded pineapple–, barbecue or chicken wings. At that time, Italian pizzerias did not have a large-scale delivery system like Domino's offered. The first of the stores opened in Milan, and later they dared to expand to cities such as Rome, Turin, Bologna or Parma. They did not dare, however, enter the capital of pizza, Naples. At first they had some success due to initial curiosity, but it soon became clear that they couldn't even compete on price, since a pizza in an Italian restaurant can cost around six euros.
Neither the new flavors have convinced the Italians nor has the delivery system worked as they wanted. Everything became clear with the pandemic, when local Italian pizzerias began to massively distribute their products with delivery platforms such as Glovo, Just Eat or Deliveroo, so Domino's motorcycles were no longer so necessary in the face of greater competition with one more product. appreciated by Italians. With the confinement imposed by the pandemic, they got used to ordering pizza at home from the restaurants of a lifetime.
“We attribute the problem to the significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with organized chains and 'mom and pop' (traditional local) restaurants delivering food, to service and to restaurants reopening after the pandemic,” he said, in a report for investors, ePizza after the results of the fourth quarter of 2021. With the closures due to coronavirus, the company reduced its profits by 35% in 2020. In May 2022, it had 19.3 million euros of debt, of which 5.3 million were owed to banks.
Domino's plans were to expand to create 850 stores in Italy in the next decade – with the goal of taking 2% of the national market – but they did not come to fruition. Domino's Italian adventure ended with the closure in July of the last of the 29 Italian branches, a decision that was derisively applauded by some social media users. "It's like trying to sell snow at the North Pole," ironized a Twitter user.
Domino's pizzas in Italy are not the only foreign product that Italians have viewed with suspicion. When Starbucks decided to open its first establishment in the European coffee mecca, in Milan in 2018, a huge controversy broke out over its prices. The latest idea from the Americans to conquer the Italian public is a line of coffees emulsified with Sicilian olive oil.
