It is a black pizza for Domino’s. According to Bloomberg News, seven years after partnering with a local firm to launch the brand to Italy, the chain’s final location in the gourmet capital of pizza is shutting.
In 2015, the U.S. firm teamed with a franchiser, ePizza SpA, to build the first Domino’s in Milan, proclaiming, “We’re going where no big pizza brand has gone before.” EPizza plans to create hundreds more Domino’s locations, a news source stated, after opening 28 more in the United States.
On paper, the agreement between American experience in food delivery and Italian expertise in a beloved national dish may have seemed favourable.
However, ePizza faced increasing competition from Italian pizza manufacturers and delivery services, particularly when COVID-19 closed outlets in Italy in 2020, as reported by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, ePizza’s pledge to utilise “100% tomato sauce and mozzarella” does not seem to have won over enough Italians to stay competitive in the country credited with originating the beloved national meal.
“We attribute the issue to the significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organized chains and ‘mom & pop’ restaurants delivering food, to service and restaurants reopening post pandemic and consumers out and about with revenge spending,” ePizza said in a report to investors, Bloomberg reported.
A Domino’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.