‘Can’t sell ice to Eskimos:’ US fast-food chain Domino’s liquidates pizza business in Italy

Domino’s had entered the Italian market in 2015 through a franchising deal with local company, ePizza SpA. In a country used to thin-crust margheritas, Domino's unsuccessfully marketed pineapple and barbecue toppings.

New Delhi: Domino’s Pizza has begun the process of liquidation in Italy, after reports poured in last August about the US fast-food chain closing all its branches in the country famous for inventing the pizza.

Citing a filing with the local chamber of commerce, a Bloomberg report said that a Milan-based judge opened liquidation proceedings for Domino’s franchise partner, ePizza SpA last week. A court-ordered liquidation could result in a recovery for creditors of 5% of their exposure, the report stated.

Domino’s had entered the Italian market in 2015 by opening its first outlet in Milan through a franchising deal with the local company. In a country where people’s taste buds are accustomed to thin-crust margheritas, the US franchise ambitiously served American-style toppings including pineapple and barbecue chicken. Its dream was short-lived as curtains came down on the last of Domino’s 29 Italian branches last summer. The multinational chain bowed out of Italy seven years after inception.  According to a New York Times report, lawyers for ePizza, in a legal filing in Milan in April 2022, said that Domino’s had been optimistic about entering “the second largest market in the world” of pizza eaters in 2015, after the United States. It was also a time when Italy didn’t have a structured, large scale, home delivery model like the Domino’s.

Over the years, ePizza borrowed heavily to open as many as 880 stores. But Covid drained the company and deprived it of 35% of its revenues from 2020, combined with rising competition which included Italian pizzerias ramping up their home delivery offerings.

Last year, Bloomberg reported that ePizza had 10.6 million euros ($10.8 million) of debt at the end of 2020.However, even before the pandemic, when Domino’s expansion dreams were soaring high, there were signs that locals wouldn’t be happy seeing too many of its outlets.A report in a food and wine website cited instances of Italians complaining on Facebook about the expansion plans, comparing it to “selling ice to Eskimos” or “bringing sand to the beach”.