Domino's delivery

The fast-food chain's Italian franchise partner, ePizza SpA, which operated 29 branches across the country, filed for bankruptcy in early April. As part of ...

Domino's ambitious experiment to launch American pizza tastes in the ancestral home of pizza has come to a quiet, predictable end.

“Having tried all of the pizza franchises in the U.S., Domino’s was the least edible,” another tweeted. In ePizza’s bankruptcy filing from April, the company cited the pandemic as the primary reason for its troubles. “Domino’s is closing its Italian restaurants. Italian entrepreneur Alessandro Lazzaroni bought the rights to distribute the chain in Italy through a franchising agreement with ePizza SpA in 2015, and trumpeted the possibilities of mixing local Italian ingredients with the American-style pizza. The U.S. company’s demise in Italy had already been in the cards when ePizza SpA, an Italian firm that Domino’s had partnered with in 2015 for a franchising agreement in the country, filed for bankruptcy in April of this year with a court in Milan. Domino’s ambitious experiment to launch American pizza tastes in the ancestral home of pizza has come to a quiet, predictable end.

The American fast food giant is shuttering its Italian business just seven years after opening its first store in Milan.

Domino's arrived in Italy in 2015, when it already had more than 12,000 stores worldwide. The company's exit from Italy was met with cheers on Twitter, where users mocked Domino's for even attempting to establish a foothold in the homeland of pizza in the first place. The fast food giant closed the last of its 29 stores on the Italian Peninsula after struggling to gain a foothold in the country, Bloomberg reports, with locals proving to be difficult to win over for the American chain.

It borrowed heavily for plans to open 880 stores, but faced tough competition from local restaurants expanding delivery services during the pandemic and sought ...

It followed an April tribunal in Milan that granted the company court protection against creditors for 90 days, according to an ePizza filing. The measures, which prevented lenders from demanding debt repayment or seizing company assets, expired on July 1. Still, the closures came as a surprise to some of its customers, who turned to the chain’s Italian social-media channels questioning why their calls and orders weren’t going through or why their local store had shut.

Domino's has now shuttered all 29 of its local stores in the country after entering in 2015 through a franchising agreement with local operator ePizza SpA, the ...

US-based representatives for Domino’s did not immediately return a request for comment. Meanwhile, Domino’s local operations encountered financial trouble during the planned expansion. The company had an outstanding debt of $10.8 million as of the end of 2020 and obtained a temporary reprieve from its creditors through an Italian court order in April – but the protection expired on July 1.

Hilarious to think that Dominos thought they could conquer Italy,” one Twitter user wrote in response to the closures.

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The company that ran Italian franchises for Domino's said customers favored mom-and-pop pies.

“Is pizza the last bastion of Italian-ness?” While some defended Domino’s in Italy as being superior to the American version, many in the country were blithe about the chain’s demise. “Didn’t even know it had opened up shop.” A Monday headline in the Italian daily newspaper Il Messaggero concluded that “Italians don’t like pineapple pizza: Domino’s is shuttering all pizzerias in the country.” The article mentioned the chain’s American-style menu items such as “Pepperoni Passion” and the “Hawaiana,” noting that such fanciful concoctions had failed to impress purists. Some agreed pizza culture in Italy was just too strong for an American incursion. Representatives from Domino’s and ePizza s.p.a. did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment. But sales were down nearly 38 percent from their projections at the end of the year.