Pizza goes International

Domino's Pizza recently opened its 300th store in India, making it the 65th new Domino’s location to open in that country this year. It is also the chain’s 9,000th store worldwide. Numbers like those mean that India is the fastest-growing market for the U.S. brand headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In fact, Dominos has estimated that soon their stores will sell more pizza outside the country than they do at home. Overall sales of Domino’s Pizza outside the U.S. are expected to surpass domestic demand within the next five years according to the company’s new CEO, J. Patrick Doyle.

Last year, domestic sales accounted for 55% of Domino’s overall $5.6 billion in receipts. Domino’s CEO Doyle said that while growth in the domestic market has to find traction in a market where independent pizzerias still account for half of the total sales, Domino's overseas sales have increased for 64 consecutive quarters, and show no signs of tapering off.

What is a Domino’s pizza in India like? How about Peppy Paneer? Peppy Paneer is a popular pizza topping offered in at Domino’s outlets India and features vegetables with a tofu-like cheese. Whatever the recipe, Domino’s pizza is a big hit with the Indians, the chain operates in 25 different cities and has shown a compounded annual growth of 42 percent in the past five years.

 

The best pizzas in the world are not made by the Italians or Americans. The best pizza in the world is made by the French. In France. According to the French anyway.

Organizers of the annual Pizza and Pasta Expo of France recently gathered that country's best pizza makers along with candidates from the rest of the world to see just who makes the best tasting pizza pies. In a not-so-surprising decision, the Expo judges decided that the French chefs were the best pizza makers. Who would have guessed?

Less subjective is the fact that France is the second biggest per-capita consumer of pizza in the world after the United States, even surpassing the Italian’s appetite for their own invention. The French pizza industry is worth three million euros a year with an average of 20 lbs. of pizza consumed every year by each person in France. It seems the French really do love their pizza, and their pizza makers too.