Domino's Pizza has pulled out of the Italian market after failing to conquer the home of Italian pizza.
The US fast food chain's departure from Italy after seven years followed a period in which business was badly hit by the coronaviruses, which forced traditional Italian pizzerias to adopt their own delivery services.
The company hoped to win over Italian customers with pizza topped with pineapple by the year 2030, and set out to open 880 outlets across the country by the year 2030. It had opened 29 branches, all of which have now been closed.
ePizza filed for bankruptcy in April of this year and all outlets stopped providing delivery services from April 20 according to Agrodolce, which first reported the story earlier this month.
In 2015, Domino s first trip into Italy was in Milan before moving to other cities including Turin, Bologna, Parma and the capital, Rome.
It didn't make it to Naples, the southern city where the pizza margherita was created.
It would have been very strange if Domino had worked here, said Gino Sorbillo, who owns a pizzeria in the city. Naples is a very special market it wins on tradition, identity it wouldn't have worked if the only goal was to make money. The move followed a similarly brave culinary exploit years earlier when McDonald opened its first store in Bolzano in 1985.
Lazzaroni said at the time that Italians were very picky about food but believed that the two great excellences of Italian quality and American food delivery prowess could come together and be successful.
The venture had some initial success but ultimately could not compete, not even on price given that a pizza in an Italian restaurant can cost as little as €5 4.22 on top of the widespread availability of pizza shops serving pizza al taglio pizza by the slice for even less.
Lazzaroni, an ex-General Manager of Burger King in Italy, now works for Crazy Pizza, a restaurant owned by former Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore on Rome's plush Via Veneto where a humble margherita costs €15.