WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Just seven years after making its debut in Milan, Domino's Pizza is saying goodbye to Italy.
The fast food giant closed the last of its 29 stores on the Italian Peninsula after struggling to gain a foothold in the country, reports said, with locals proving to be difficult to win over for the American chain.
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.
Domino's arrived in Italy in 2015, when it already had more than 12,000 stores worldwide. It planned to win customers over with 'purely Italian' ingredients including '100 percent tomato sauce and mozzarella, and products like Prosciutto di Parma, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano and Mozzarella di bufala Campana,' said the reports of that time.
But plans to get Italians hooked on deliverable pizza were scattered by the pandemic, when local pizzerias turned to delivery when in-person dining was shut down by Covid lockdowns.
In an earnings report last year, the company responsible for the Italian Domino's franchises cited 'significantly increased levels of competition in the food delivery market' for its poor performance.
A representative for Domino's did not immediately respond to this news development.
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