This American Pizza Chain Is Now Officially the Largest One In the World
When America's #1 pizza chain announced at the start of the year that there's still more room for major growth for their brand, it was obvious the company was gunning for absolute world domination in the arena of fast-food pizza.
Domino's CFO Stu Levy let on as much when he said that the brand isn't happy with just being the largest pizza chain in the United States by systemwide sales, but it wants to be a "dominant #1", aka take over even more of the market share for quick-service pizza domestically.
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But beyond absolutely dominating on its home turf, Domino's has now achieved a major global milestone as well—it has become the largest pizza chain in the world by the number of restaurants, overtaking its biggest rival Pizza Hut.
That's right, with 18,057 locations, there are now more Domino's restaurants worldwide than there are Pizza Huts, which number at 17,809. According to Restaurant Business, this is the fourth measure by which Domino's is beating out its competitor. It is already more widespread than Pizza Hut in the United States, and makes more in systemwide sales than its rival both domestically and globally. Now, it also has the number of global units to match its absolute popularity.
Domino's has actually doubled in size over the past decade to beat out Pizza Hut's unit count. While Pizza Hut expanded ferociously in China, it ended up losing as many as 1,000 U.S. locations in ten years, demonstrating its drop in its overall popularity among Americans. The downturn was largely due to the fact that Pizza Hut just hasn't been agile enough with modernizations, like moving its business model from dine-in to take-out.
By contrast, Domino's added 1,400 domestic locations during that period. It kept its technology up to speed and currently receives as many as 75% of all orders digitally. It also began investing in alternative delivery methods—like self-driving cars and bikes—to be able to maintain one of the fastest delivery times in the industry.
For more, check out:
- This Major National Pizza Chain Just Launched a Brand New Mashup Item
- America's Second-Biggest Burger Chain Plans to Open 700 New Locations
- Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC Are the First Fast-Food Brands to Do This
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