Global Fast-food chain, Domino’s Pizza will close all its outlets in Russia, becoming one of the first major Western fast-food chains to exit the country since McDonald’s and Starbucks left more than a year ago.
DP Eurasia — the company that owns franchise rights for the Domino’s Pizza brand in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia — said Monday, August 21 that it would file for bankruptcy for its Russian unit, DPRussia.
The move highlights the increasingly hard choices facing Western firms that stayed in Russia after the start of the Ukraine war.
Russia has made it more difficult and more costly for Western companies to sell their Russian businesses. And it has in some cases seized control of firms’ local assets, as with Danish brewer Carlsberg (CABGY) and French yogurt maker Danone (DANOY).
“With the increasingly challenging environment, DPRussia’s immediate holding company is now compelled to take this step, which will bring about the termination of the attempted sale process of DPRussia as a going concern and, inevitably, the group’s presence in Russia,” DP Eurasia said in a statement.
The company operates 142 stores in Russia and is the country’s third-largest pizza delivery business. In December, DP Eurasia said it was reviewing its presence in Russia and that work on a potential sale was “ongoing.”
After exiting Russia, Starbucks became Stars Coffee and McDonald’s is now “Vkusno i tochka,” which translates to “Tasty, period.”
More than 1,000 foreign companies have exited or suspended operations in Russia since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.