Domino's Pizza Virginia

Domino’s Pizza is one of the leading pizza delivery companies in the United States that guarantees a fresh, warm box of pizza in 30 minutes. Along with classic hand tossed pizza, Domino’s offers a large menu including their specialty ultimate deep dish pizzas, crunchy thin crust pizzas, Brooklyn style pizzas as well as signature side orders of breadsticks, cheesy bread, cinna stix, buffalo wings and buffalo chicken kickers. Domino’s allows customers to either choose from “Feast Pizzas” which have pre-chosen toppings, or they can create their own personalized pizza. Domino’s offers a few different ways in which customers can order their meals. Customers can physically go into a Domino’s Pizza store to place an order, call ahead by phone to have it picked up or delivered, and just recently they introduced an “order online” feature which allows customers to place an order through their website, www.dominos.com and have it delivered to their location. With meals, side dishes as well as sodas, Domino’s Pizza is a convenient place for customers to receive a full and satisfying meal.

The company started in 1960 when Tom Monaghan and his brother James decided to buy out a small pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Michigan (just outside of Ann Arbor) called “Dominick’s Pizza”. The deal was secured by a $75 down payment and $500 for the store but just eight months later, James decided to quit the partnership and traded his half of the business to his brother for a used Volkswagen Beetle. After this trade, Tom became the sole owner of the company and decided to change the name of the company to “Domino’s Pizza”.

Today, Domino’s employs 13,300 people in about 8,300 store locations in 50 states of the US and in 55 countries around the world. The company also operates 17 regional dough manufacturing and distribution centers in the US and six others internationally.

The company recorded revenues of over $1.4 million during the fiscal year ending in December of 2006, which is a decrease of 4.9% from 2005.

Domino’s operates through three business segments: domestic distribution, domestic stores, and international. The domestic distribution segment manufacturers dough and distributes food and supplies through 17 dough manufacturing and distribution centers, to all the domestic company-owned stores and over 98% of the domestic franchise stores. Each regional dough manufacturing and distribution center serves approximately 300 stores, generally located within a one-day delivery radius. The company supports 5,000 stores with various supplies and ingredients, of which nine product group’s account for nearly 90 % of the volume.

The domestic stores segment comprises of over 4,500 franchise stores and 571 company owned stores. The company’s domestic franchises are operated by entrepreneurs who own and operate an average of three to four stores. Five of the company’s domestic franchisees operate more than 50 stores. The company’s largest domestic franchisee operates 140 stores.

The company’s international segment manages over 3,200 franchise stores outside the US. It also manufactures dough and distributes food and supplies to a limited number of international markets from six dough manufacturing and distribution centers in Alaska, Hawaii and Canada. Domino’s international franchises include 548 stores in Mexico, 422 franchise stores in the UK, 395 franchise stores in Australia, 285 franchise stores in South Korea, 272 franchise stores in Canada and over 100 franchise stores in Japan, Taiwan, and India. The principal sources of revenues from international operations are royalty payments generated by retail sales from franchise stores, sales of food supplies to franchisees in certain markets and company-owned retail store sales.

Domestically speaking, while rival Pizza Hut commands the largest portion of all quick-serve pizza sales, Domino's leads the pizza delivery business with a 20% market share. Part of its success in expanding has been its focus on delivery service, meaning its restaurants tend to be smaller with less start-up and maintenance costs than other types of restaurants. Domino's continues to focus on franchising to expand its chain, with nearly 100 new units opening in the US during 2006. Its stable number of company-owned restaurants, meanwhile, account for a little more than 25% of sales.

More of Domino’s competitors include: McDonalds, Wendy’s, Papa John’s International and California Pizza Kitchen.

As with any of the large fast-food chains, Domino's spends a hefty amount on advertising to maintain and increase its market share. The company's franchisees each contribute a percentage of their sales to fund both national marketing efforts and local advertising. Domino's also places a lot of emphasis on product development to steal customers away from other pizzerias. The chain introduced its Brooklyn Style Pizza in 2006. In the past, Domino’s has included catchy phrases in its commercials such as “Get the Door” as well as attractive models in order to grab the attention of customers.

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