{"id":832857,"date":"2025-07-29T17:09:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=832857"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:09:06","slug":"two-fast-food-pizza-brands-which-have-disappeared-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/832857\/two-fast-food-pizza-brands-which-have-disappeared-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Two fast-food pizza brands which have disappeared in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite South Africa\u2019s booming fast-food industry, some nostalgic franchises, including Scooters Pizza and Domino\u2019s Pizza, have disappeared from towns across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, the country\u2019s quick-service restaurant (QSR) market remains one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the South African QSR sector is facing immense pressure from inflation, tighter household budgets, and a rapidly evolving food landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grocery stores, ready-meal offerings, coffee shops, and health-conscious convenience outlets are all muscling in on what was once a niche dominated by burgers, chicken, and pizza chains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Trade Intelligence\u2019s latest Food To Go report<\/a>, staying alive in this space requires relentless innovation, agility, and brand loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competitiveness of this market in South Africa was highlighted in 2024 when a 24-hour drive-thru site in Green Point, Cape Town, became the subject of a heated bidding war between McDonald\u2019s and KFC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonald\u2019s ultimately secured the lease<\/a> from the City of Cape Town for R420,000 a month, which works out to just over R5 million a year. This shows just how high the stakes are for premium QSR locations in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unforgiving environment has claimed several casualties over the years, including Scooters Pizza, which was once a household local brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The franchise started with a bold promise: 39 minutes or your order is free. Scooters was the brainchild of Carlo Gonzaga, Taste Holdings CEO, who first got a taste of the industry when his father bought one of the early Debonairs Pizza franchises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After acquiring a law degree, Gonzaga joined his father in the pizza business during university holidays and later bought into it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in 2000, Scooters Pizza quickly gained momentum. The brand resonated with South Africans who wanted fast, reliable pizza delivery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2006, it had 100 stores and was the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe only ever thought we\u2019d have 90 stores at best. We were amazed that a couple of guys who did pizza and cappuccinos would grow like this,\u201d said Gonzaga.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fall of Scooters and Dominos Pizza<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a bold marketing stunt<\/a>, Gonzaga set a South African delivery record, and then aimed to deliver a pizza from South Africa to Las Vegas in 39 hours. After Domino\u2019s broke that record, he took things even further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, Gonzaga, his father, and two colleagues embarked on a 39-day motorbike journey across Africa, delivering a frozen pizza to his 94-year-old grandmother in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then delivered to the Springboks in France during the Rugby World Cup finals, and finally to the South African ambassador in London\u2019s Trafalgar Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this publicity and a loyal following, Scooters couldn\u2019t keep pace with the sector\u2019s mounting challenges, partly due to Gonzaga\u2019s plan to bring in the American brand Domino\u2019s Pizza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2019, Scooters had quietly disappeared amid dwindling sales and tough competition from more established chains like Debonairs and Domino\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internal operational inefficiencies eventually forced its parent company, Taste Holdings, to divest from its food business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taste Holdings then fully focused on Domino\u2019s Pizza, which it launched in South Africa in 2014, with much excitement around the arrival of the global pizza giant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over five years, the American brand expanded to 85 stores in key urban centres and was seen as a serious contender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Domino\u2019s struggled to scale. Local supply chain challenges, poor differentiation, and tough competition from entrenched South African brands hampered its performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Taste Holdings announced<\/a> it was exiting all of its food ventures, including Starbucks, Domino\u2019s Pizza, Maxi\u2019s, and The Fish & Chips Co., to focus on its luxury retail business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it successfully offloaded most of its food assets, Domino\u2019s Pizza proved unsellable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite support from Domino\u2019s Pizza LLC [the US franchise company] and negotiations with several potential buyers, no deal could be reached that satisfied all parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Taste placed the business into voluntary liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDomino’s Pizza LLC provided financial support and assistance during this period,\u201d said Taste in a statement on the Stock Exchange News Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, a deal could not be concluded on terms acceptable to all parties and further financial support was not provided. As a result, it was decided to place the respective entities into voluntary liquidation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite South Africa\u2019s booming fast-food industry, two nostalgic franchises have disappeared from towns across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":832924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10688,21238,853,10130],"class_list":["post-832857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dominos-pizza","tag-scooters-pizza","tag-south-africa","tag-taste-holdings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832857"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833501,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832857\/revisions\/833501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}