NEW YORK — Adding a stuffed crust to a pizza chain’s menu doesn’t seem like a big deal. But for Domino’s Pizza, it’s more than three decades in the making.
The option was introduced in 1995 by Pizza Hut — launching with a TV ad starring Donald Trump — and became an immediate hit for the pizza chain. However, by Domino’s own admission, the company’s former leadership believed that stuffed crust was just going to be a fad and would create operational problems, such as slowing down the kitchen’s speed.
“That never really felt on brand for us,” said Kate Trumbull, Domino’s chief marketing officer. “We know the importance of really keeping operations as smooth and as efficient as possible. It just it wasn’t right at that time for us.”
That changed Monday. Domino’s added a parmesan cheese stuffed crust to U.S. menus, marking the first time it’s ever sold the item that has become a staple on its rivals’ boards. The new crust is being sold for $9.99 with one topping.
Domino’s hesitance to add the item comes with the increase in time it takes to make a stuffed pizza: It involves an intricate process of laying out the string cheese, folding the dough to prevent cheese from oozing out and extra time in baking the pie. That has been solved thanks to new equipment, called “DJ Dough Spinners,” that speeds up the process and makes it easy for employees to assemble.
Trumbull told CNN that it’s “been one of the longest development efforts in our company’s history,” which encompassed 12 weeks of training for its roughly 7,000 U.S. locations.
But stuffed crust was the “only major gap in (Domino’s) menu versus national competitors,” she said. The company’s research showed that it loses 13 million (mostly younger) customers to other chains looking for stuffed crust and amounts to a sizable chunk of lost revenue.
For Pizza Hut, the launch of stuffed crust immediately set records, generating $300 million in sales in its first year, and it remains on the menu today. Competitors followed, including in 2020 when Papa John’s added its own spin on cheesy dough and helped the chain boost sales nearly 30% during the quarter it launched.
Adding a stuffed crust is aimed at boosting Domino’s bottom line: Sales rose in the most recent quarter a meager 0.4% — coming in below analysts’ expectations — prompting the company’s finance chief to explain on the earnings call last week that the chain was “impacted by continued macro and competitive pressures that put pressure on our low-income customers.”
Domino’s was the only publicly traded pizza chain to report a same-store sales growth with Pizza Hut and Papa John’s both reporting a decline in sales. All three chains are being affected by consumers cutting back on their spending and increasingly searching for value when they do order.
Domino’s isn’t predicting a better year: “As we look ahead to 2025, we believe the combination of pressured consumer spending and a value-driven (quick service restaurant) marketplace will continue,” said Domino’s CEO Russell Weiner on the call.
However, the new stuffed crust might soften the blow as analysts at TD Cowen are forecasting a meaningful lift in sales because of the addition.
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