American chain quits land of pizza.

Domino's Pizza, the American multinational pizza chain, has closed all of its 29 branches in Italy after being squeezed out of the home delivery market by local pizza-makers.

The departure of Domino's from Italy is a fallout from the covid pandemic, according to Italian food website Agrodolce, which first reported the news on 4 August.

• Domino's Pizza launches in Rome

The government's lockdowns and coronavirus restrictions on restaurants saw many Italian caterers branch into the takeaway market, coinciding with the explosion of home delivery services.

Domino's launched in Italy in 2015, in Milan, before opening in other cities including Bologna, Parma, Turin and even Rome.

• Domino's Pizza to open 880 outlets in Italy

The pizza chain had ambitious plans to open 880 outlets across north and central Italy, setting its sights on reaching two per cent of the market share of the country's pizzerie by 2030.

However despite some initial success, the competition of recent years proved too much for the pizza giant which permanently closed all of its Italian outlets this summer.

Photo credit: wisely / Shutterstock.com.