Two fast-food pizza brands which have disappeared in South Africa

In 2025, the country’s quick-service restaurant (QSR) market remains one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, the South African QSR sector is facing immense pressure from inflation, tighter household budgets, and a rapidly evolving food landscape. 

Grocery stores, ready-meal offerings, coffee shops, and health-conscious convenience outlets are all muscling in on what was once a niche dominated by burgers, chicken, and pizza chains. 

According to Trade Intelligence’s latest Food To Go report, staying alive in this space requires relentless innovation, agility, and brand loyalty.

The competitiveness of this market in South Africa was highlighted in 2024 when a 24-hour drive-thru site in Green Point, Cape Town, became the subject of a heated bidding war between McDonald’s and KFC. 

McDonald’s ultimately secured the lease from the City of Cape Town for R420,000 a month, which works out to just over R5 million a year. This shows just how high the stakes are for premium QSR locations in the country.

This unforgiving environment has claimed several casualties over the years, including Scooters Pizza, which was once a household local brand.

The franchise started with a bold promise: 39 minutes or your order is free. Scooters was the brainchild of Carlo Gonzaga, Taste Holdings CEO, who first got a taste of the industry when his father bought one of the early Debonairs Pizza franchises. 

After acquiring a law degree, Gonzaga joined his father in the pizza business during university holidays and later bought into it. 

Launched in 2000, Scooters Pizza quickly gained momentum. The brand resonated with South Africans who wanted fast, reliable pizza delivery. 

By 2006, it had 100 stores and was the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country.

“We only ever thought we’d have 90 stores at best. We were amazed that a couple of guys who did pizza and cappuccinos would grow like this,” said Gonzaga. 

The fall of Scooters and Dominos Pizza

In a bold marketing stunt, Gonzaga set a South African delivery record, and then aimed to deliver a pizza from South Africa to Las Vegas in 39 hours. After Domino’s broke that record, he took things even further. 

In 2007, Gonzaga, his father, and two colleagues embarked on a 39-day motorbike journey across Africa, delivering a frozen pizza to his 94-year-old grandmother in Italy.

He then delivered to the Springboks in France during the Rugby World Cup finals, and finally to the South African ambassador in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Despite this publicity and a loyal following, Scooters couldn’t keep pace with the sector’s mounting challenges, partly due to Gonzaga’s plan to bring in the American brand Domino’s Pizza.

By 2019, Scooters had quietly disappeared amid dwindling sales and tough competition from more established chains like Debonairs and Domino’s.

Internal operational inefficiencies eventually forced its parent company, Taste Holdings, to divest from its food business.

Taste Holdings then fully focused on Domino’s Pizza, which it launched in South Africa in 2014, with much excitement around the arrival of the global pizza giant. 

Over five years, the American brand expanded to 85 stores in key urban centres and was seen as a serious contender. 

However, Domino’s struggled to scale. Local supply chain challenges, poor differentiation, and tough competition from entrenched South African brands hampered its performance.

In 2019, Taste Holdings announced it was exiting all of its food ventures, including Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza, Maxi’s, and The Fish & Chips Co., to focus on its luxury retail business. 

While it successfully offloaded most of its food assets, Domino’s Pizza proved unsellable.

Despite support from Domino’s Pizza LLC [the US franchise company] and negotiations with several potential buyers, no deal could be reached that satisfied all parties.

Ultimately, Taste placed the business into voluntary liquidation.

“Domino’s Pizza LLC provided financial support and assistance during this period,” said Taste in a statement on the Stock Exchange News Services. 

“Unfortunately, a deal could not be concluded on terms acceptable to all parties and further financial support was not provided. As a result, it was decided to place the respective entities into voluntary liquidation.”

Issued on BusinessTech by Malcolm Libera | https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/832857/two-fast-food-pizza-brands-which-have-disappeared-in-south-africa/