Themes: Supply Chain Management
Period : 1999 - 2003
Organization : Domino's
Pub Date : 2003
Countries : India
Industry : Food, Beverage and Tobacco
In the late 1950s, Dominick De Varti (Varti) owned a small pizza store named DomiNick's Pizza on the Eastern Michigan University campus in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In 1960, two brothers who were students of the University of Michigan
- Thomas S. Monaghan (Thomas) and James S. Monaghan (James) - bought the store for US$900. In 1961, James sold his share of business to Thomas.
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However, the company ran into problems when its headquarters (the first store) and commissary were destroyed by fire. In the early 1970s, the company faced problems again when it was sued by Amstar, the parent company of Domino Sugar for trademark infringement. Thomas started looking for a new name and came up with Red Domino's and Pizza's Dispatch. However, there wasn't any need for it because Domino's won the lawsuit in 1980.
In 1982, Domino's Pizza established Domino's Pizza International (DPI) that was made responsible for opening Domino's stores internationally. The first store was opened in Winnipeg, Canada. Within a year, DPI spread to more than 50 countries and in 1983, it inaugurated its 1000th store (Refer Exhibit II for worldwide revenues). Around the same time, new pizza chains like Pizza Hut and Little Caesar established themselves in the US. Domino's Pizza faced intense competition because it had not changed its menu of traditional hand-tossed pizza. The other pizza chains offered low-priced breadsticks, salads and other fast food apart from pizzas. Domino's faced tough competition from Pizza Hut in the home delivery segment also. Little Caeser was eating into Domino's market share with its innovative marketing strategies.