BHUBANESWAR: It’s a matter of time before Jubilant FoodWorks-operated Domino’s Pizza renews its famous slogan, “Domino’s Pizza are best enjoyed with Coke”. To be sure, you are not getting any Coke with your pizza anymore. Like it or not, you may have to take home a bottle of Pepsi branded beverages.
On Tuesday, JFL signed a multi-year deal with PepsiCo as its exclusive beverage partner, ditching its alliance with Coca-Cola. The move, industry watchers say, is perhaps to save cost and boost the profitability of the pizza maker.
As part of the partnership, the PepsiCo portfolio of carbonated beverages—Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up and Mirinda, along with Lipton Ice Tea—will be sold across all Domino’s restaurants in the country. Historically, Domino’s has had exclusive partnership deals with Coca-Cola worldwide, with only a few exceptions, such as Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Malaysia, where it serves PepsiCo beverages.
“The partnership will bring in fresh focus on our beverage portfolio. Now, we look forward to offering greater beverage variety and thereby enhancing the Domino’s Pizza experience for our guests, said Pratik Pota, Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director, Jubilant FoodWorks. The company had a strong partnership with Coca-Cola India for over 20 years now.
Analysts say that the move is expected to give a boost to PepsiCo’s food service business in the country. PepsiCo has exclusive tie-ups with many of Domino’s rival food chains such as KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut and Burger King, besides multiplex players such as PVR in India. However, McDonald continues to enjoy its long-standing alliance with Coca-Cola.
On Twitter, the announcement received mixed reactions, with some rejoicing and others lamenting the changing alliance. “Not done Domino’s, pizza tastes best with coke,” tweeted a coke fan.
The Michigan-based Domino’s Pizza has a network of 1.167 stores across 269 cities. Besides India, the company and its subsidiaries have exclusive rights to develop and operate the brand in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It also has exclusive rights for developing and operating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants for India.