Domino's Pizza to close all of its 29 stores in Italy

After a volatile trading year, Domino's is set to close all of its Italy store locations following a second-quarter earnings miss.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right. My play is Domino's pizza, DPZ, as they officially exit the home of pizza, Italy. Domino's who had originally planned to open more than 800 stores across Italy will now close. After seven years, all 29 remaining on the Italian peninsula. Italian consumers simply never warmed to American style pizza. Probably not a shocker.

Back in 2015, Italian entrepreneur Alessandro lazzaroni, who headed up the local operation, said, we've created our own recipe starting from the original pizza recipe with Italian products like tomato sauce, mozzarella, and prosciutto, but just didn't happen for them. Domino's recently missed Q2 estimates as they struggle with driver shortage and higher costs. Shares are largely flat today, down about 1/2% down nearly 30% though year to date.

That's a tough one to translate to Italy, Rachelle. I love Domino's. Their gluten free is outstanding. But in Italy, come on.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I mean, you have to know your market. Of all places to try, I mean, I appreciate the chutzpa. But no, this was not the play. And we did see the e-pizza spa that was actually their franchise partner. They filed for bankruptcy back in April. So we already saw really the writing on the wall. And then once COVID was sort of increasing, you saw a lot of these traditional Italian pizza makers. They were using delivery apps that sort of also took that edge that Domino's has once you have the traditional pizza companies also joining in. So really a tough sell. Ambitious. But yeah.

SEANA SMITH: I don't think this is a surprise to anyone. If you're in Italy, you have the best pizza in the world. Why the heck would you be going to Domino's? And I'm someone, I don't even think I'm that picky when it comes to pizza. And I'm still not crazy about when my husband and when my kids want to order Domino's at home. So it makes sense they're pulling out of the country. It's-- but it looks like--

DAVE BRIGGS: It's delightful.

SEANA SMITH: --you disagree. Really?

DAVE BRIGGS: It's delightful. It's delicious. I'm just going to tell you right now.