Donato's pizza
Donatos Pizza is an American fast food chain specializing in pizza .
Donatos Pizza was founded by Jim Grote in 1963. Back then, he bought a small pizzeria in the south of Columbus, Ohio, for US $ 1,300 and set up a business with his parents .
In May 1999, Grote sold the family-run chain with more than 140 branches to McDonald’s Corporation. After the takeover, the chain expanded, especially in the Midwest, to a total of over 200 restaurants throughout the United States, some of them as franchising branches.
In 2003, Donatos was taken over again by Jim Grote after the McDonald's Corporation wanted to part with all external brands in order to be able to focus more on the core business.
After financial problems due to the buyback, the purchase price of which is secret, the company has now consolidated itself according to its own information. It reported total sales for 2006 at $ 175 million.
Germany
The first branch outside of the USA opened in November 2002 in Regerstrasse in Munich (across from the Paulaner brewery). In total, Donatos Pizza expanded to three branches in Munich. Right from the start, the locations served to adapt the US concept to the peculiarities of the German and European markets (e.g. adapting the recipes and developing different sales channels). On the basis of the product and market studies carried out in the branches, a broad-based multiplication of the concept should be initiated. Originally, the fast food chain wanted to open around 200 pizza branches in Germany by 2005. The locations were closed again in 2003 after McDonald's decided to concentrate on its core range of hamburgers again as a result of personnel changes in the US and German management. According to a report in the news magazine Der Spiegel , the three Munich branches made losses. A McDonald's branch has meanwhile been opened in the building on Regerstrasse. Jim Grote wanted to develop the Donatos brand further in the USA, but showed no interest in further developing the company in Germany.