Domino’s Pizza rivals Pizza Hut with a new range individual pasta dishes in puff pastry bowls

Domino’s Pizzas Enterprises today launched a rival range of individual pasta dishes following Pizza Hut’s release of baked pasta meals for four.

The Domino’s range of three varieties of pasta meals which come in novel puff pastry bowls - Chicken Carbonara, Pasta Primavera and Beef Napolitana - are part of 15 new products the company launched today in a bid to capture a bigger market.

Don Meij, Domino’s chief executive officer, said the company had never introduced so many new products at the same time before. ‘This is just the beginning of what you are going to see from Domino’s,’ he said.

Another of the new products, Choc Lava Cake, individual hot chocolate cakes with melted chocolate inside, was released in the lead up to Valentine’s Day and sold 60,000 in its first week on the market.

Meij told a media briefing today the company expected to be the biggest pasta delivery company in Australia by the end of the first week of selling its pasta range.

The other products launched include three new varieties of Big Taste range of pizzas - Meatza Soprano, Vege Grande and Chicken Capri - made with ingredients such as grape tomatoes, baby spinach leaves, chicken breast meat and 100% mozzarella cheese.

Three new dips have also been released - Aioli, Ranch Dip and Chilli - to have with the Domino’s Chicken Kickers and pizza crusts.

Domino’s is also launching a range of individual drinks, including Coca-Cola in bullet cans, Vitamin water and 600ml bottles of sparling Franklins mineral water.

Meij said Domino’s expected to grow its business in the economic downturn by tapping into new markets such as the pasta market, which was bigger than the pizza market, capture a bigger share of the lunchtime market with its individual pasta and Choc Lave Cake products, offered from $7.95 and $2.95, respectively and attract customers who were moving from the restaurant and cafe market to takeaway.

“In the current economy, we are seeing people moving from restaurants and cafes into our sector and when they are coming there, they have a real high expectation of quality because of where they’ve been dining, so we got to make sure we’re rising to meet that expectation but at the same time we meet the most important reason they’re coming, and that’s value,” he said.

Domino’s claims number one place in Australia’s takeaway pizza distribution with 510 franchised stores across Australia and New
Zealand, selling more than 50 million pizzas a year.