After 7 years of presence in Italy, the American fast food chain Domino’s Pizza closed its almost 30 branches not having managed to conquer the palate of the locals.
EPizza SpA, the franchise operator of the Domino’s brand (DMPZF) in Italy, filed for bankruptcy in April, after struggling to make enough sales during 2 years of pandemic restrictions.
“We attribute the problem to the significantly higher level of competition in the food delivery market with organized chains and ‘mom and pop’ restaurants (traditional venues) delivering food, service and restaurants reopening after the pandemic,” ePizza said. in a report for investors that accompanies its results for the fourth quarter of 2021 and that is collected by the US economic press.
Although the company’s Italian website remained active, on the international map of Domino’s no longer appear the restaurants that the chain had in the Mediterranean country.
the american chain entered Italy in 2015 through a franchise agreement with ePizza SpA and planned to stand out from the overwhelming local offerings with a national delivery service with popular US pizzas like the Hawaiian, which includes pineapple, or the chicken wings.
The company had already reduced its operations in the country from its peak in 2020 and stopped offering delivery from its website on July 29, according to Bloomberg.
In April a court in Milan granted the company judicial protection against creditors for 90 days, according to a statement from ePizza to which the media had access.
The company had a debt of 10.6 million euros (about $10.9 million) at the end of 2020, according to the latest audited annual reports accessed by the media.
