Domino's loses its Pizzazz

Eat-in restaurants have been ruled out for future Domino's Pizza outlets following the flop earlier this year of the company's pilot sit-down operation in central London.

Pizzazz, located on St Martin's Lane, lasted just four months. Domino's Pizza general manager Gerry Halpern said the decision to open the restaurant had been a mistake.

"It was away from our core business, which is delivery. We tried to have a sit-down concept like Pizza Hut, but it didn't work out.

"Maybe we should have given it more time, but it was taking up a lot of energy, time and money so it was better to stop. I would like to forget about it."

Domino's has 106 stores, mostly franchises. Mr Halpern said he wanted to expand at a rate of about 24 outlets a year over the next four years in a bid to more than double the size of its network.

"We cover only about 10% of the UK. Most of London is covered but there are other towns and cities where there are no Domino's Pizza outlets. We are not in Liverpool, for example, which could probably support five locations, and have nothing at all in Scotland."

Mr Halpern dismissed suggestions that the pizza home-delivery market had reached saturation point. He highlighted figures showing that in the UK, only 25% of people eat pizza regularly, compared with 95% in the USA.