Family Life

12.16.09 |

Domino's Pizza is making a very bold and saucy move today. The world's largest pizza delivery chain is drastically changing its core pizza recipe with a new crust, cheese and sauce. The pizza overhaul comes after a 2009 customer taste preferences survey rated Domino's last among national chains, although the company ranked first in price and convenience. The new recipe will feature crust with added butter, garlic and parsley, cheese that shredded with a touch provolone and a new sweeter sauce with a red pepper kick. The company tested 15 different sauces, dozens of cheeses and 50 crust seasoning blends. The move is risky. The changes occur just weeks before pizza's big day: Super Bowl Sunday.

 The company's marketing chief Russell Weiner tells "USA Today," quote, "We're basically relaunching Domino's Pizza." The company has global sales of five-point-five-billion dollars. The quick-service pizza industry is a 33-point-five-billion-dollar-a-year business, but it's not recession proof. From January to October of this year, delivery sales fell six-percent from the same period last year. As it stands now, industry insiders say they'd be challenged to name another restaurant chain that has attempted such a drastic altering of its main product.