In 2014, Domino’s generated $1.9 billion dollars of revenue of which 62% percent was from selling the ingredient to its franchisees supply chain management [10]. Although most of us think of Domino’s as a pizza company, the company is dependent on its efficient logistics. Domino’s Supply chain is divided into three main tiers. Tier2 is comprised of Domino’s key suppliers that ship ingredients to Domino’s distribution centers. Tier 2 includes nine Leprino’s foods cheese suppliers, three Paradise tomato sauce suppliers, thirty eight Ardent Mills flour supplier and two Domino’s thin crust bread and veggie supplier center. Tire 2 supplies pizza ingredients cheese, tomato sauce, flour, thin crust bread to tier1 (Domino’s Distribution centers). Tier1 is comprised of 16 Domino’s distribution centers that supply all ingredients to each of the stores in the US . Tier1 supplies the pizza ingredients to Tier 0 (5098 Domino’s stores). Tier 0 takes these ingredients and produce pizza to each of Domino’s customers.

Figure 4: Domino’s Supply chain tiers

In order to control the quality standards of its products Domino’s has strict requirements on the ingredients, assembly, and cooking of its products. To maintain quality standards, the company requires franchise stores to purchase the dough, cheese, and sauce from its corporate distribution centers. Dough is made at the distribution centers to further ensure consistency and reduce preparation activities at stores. The distribution center also provide toppings, equipment and other restaurant consumables like boxes and cleaning supplies franchisees are required to purchase all these items from the distribution centers.

Domino’s Stores

As of the loitering of this case, there are 5098 Domino’s stores in US. Each store receives a bi-weekly delivery of pizza ingredient and other store consumables from Domino’s distribution center. Domino’s stores use these ingredients to make regular and thin crust pizzas. The recipes for both regular and thin crust pizza are given below.

Figure 5 : Domino’s 16 pizza

How to make 16’’ Domino’s regular Pizza in the store:

Press 14.6 Ounce dough into an oiled 16-inch pizza pan
Top each with 1.5 cup Paradise tomato sauce,
Sprinkle with 2.25 cups shredded Leprino’s cheese.
Bake until the cheese melts, then drizzle with olive oil.

Figure 6: Domino’s thin crust pizza

How to make 14’’ Domino’s thin crust Pizza in the store:

Place the 14’’ thin crust bread into an oiled 14-inch pizza pan
Top each with 1.5 cup Paradise tomato sauce,
Sprinkle with 2.25 cups diced Leprino’s cheese.
Bake until the cheese melts, then drizzle with olive oil.

On average 72% of the total pizza saleFigure 6: Domino’s thin crust pizzas are regular crust while thin crust pizza accounts the remaining 28%.

Distribution Centers

Domino’s has 18 distribution centers, 16 of which supply all Domino’s stores with necessary pizza ingredients and other store consumables. The 16 Domino’s distribution centers continuously supply dough, cheese, sauce and thin crust bread. Domino’s also operates two specialized distribution centers that handle the demand for the dough for thin crust and for toppings. These two special Domino’s distribution centers will be discussed Section 4.

Domino’s distribution centers are strategically located around the US so it can reach all stores within a one day delivery window. On average each Domino’s distribution centers area is about 20,000 square feet [12]. This area includes dough manufacturing area and space to store refrigerated pallets to store boxes of cheese. Boxes of thin crust breads shipped from the suppliers and tray of dough are also stored in this area. The distribution center also stores flour, tomato sauce and other consumable material on pallets of size 48’’x 40’’x12’’in the none refrigerated section of the distribution center.

Figure 7: Stack of dough tray in distribution center

These distribution centers have the capacity to manufacture and distribute regular doughs to meet the demand of the Domino’s stores they cover. Dough manufactured at the distribution center will be stored in tray box on a rack inside the refrigerated section of the distribution center before shipped to the stores.

Figure 8: The 18 Domino’s distribution centers

Locations and capacities of each of the 16 Domino distribution centers are given in the table below. Distribution center capacities are also given in pizzas per week with the distribution center being capable of manufacturing and redistributing ingredients to meet the pizza capacity. Distribution centers service franchise stores twice a week with fresh pizza ingredients [9].

Table 1: Domino’s distribution center location and dough supply capacity

How to make 16’’ regular Domino’s pizza dough

Regular pizza dough ingredient [26]:

3 cups flour
1/3 tsp salt
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon sugar

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and water until thoroughly combined.
Transfer to a piece of parchment paper and shape into a ball and roll it out paper thin on a piece of parchment paper.

Domino’s key suppliers

Domino’s is one of the largest domestic bulk purchasers of pizza ingredients such as flour, cheese, sauce and pizza boxes [10]. This allows Domino’s to maximize leverage with its suppliers. The main Domino’s pizza ingredients are: cheese, flour, and tomato sauce. They are sourced from different suppliers. These ingredients will be delivered to each Domino’s distribution centers while retaining their quality standards. Domino’s 4 key suppliers are:

Leprino’s Foods
Paradise Tomato
Ardent Mills
Domino’s thin crust bread manufacturing distribution center

1. Dominos Cheese Supplier

Cheese is one of the most important ingredients of pizza accounting from 26 to 40% of the pizza price [19]. Domino’s stores consume over 3.5 Million pounds of cheese per week. Domino’s purchase its shredded pizza cheese from a single supplier, Leprino Food Company. Leprino’s have nine cheese supply locations throughout US with total supply capacity of 6 Million pounds of cheese per week to meet Domino’s and other cheese market demands.

Figure 10: Leprino’s cheese

Leprino’s supplies cheeses to the 16 Domino’s distribution centers bi weekly. Detailed Leprino’s locations, supply capacity and cost of box of cheese are given in table 2.

2. Domino’s pizza tomato sauce supplier

The tomato sauce used by Domino’s pizza is supplied by Louisville, KY-based Paradise Tomato Kitchen s [20]. Tomato sauce makes between 12-16 percent of the total pizza ingredient cost. Paradise which has been named supplier of the year by Domino’s multiple times can supplies approximately 2.5 Million pound per week of tomato sauce from its 3 locations throughout US.

Figure 11: Pouch of Paradise tomato sauce

3. Domino’s flour supplier

Ardent Mills is one of the largest flour producing company in US. Ardent mills have 44 milling locations in USA and Canada [23] with thirty eight Ardent mills locations in US. Domino’s buys approximately 8 million pound per of flour per week from Ardent Mills. The flour is used to make pizza dough and thin crust bread. Ardent Mill has 38 milling locations in US alone and incurs average $750 per week facility cost for each of the 38 milling sites in US.

Figure 12 : Ardent Mill 50 lb. flour

4. Domino’s thin crust bread supplier

Domino’s in addition to its regular pizza it serves to its customers introduced the crispy thin crust pizza in its menu in 1993[13]. To meet the demand of thin crust pizza, Domino’s has dedicated one distribution center (#17 located in Illinois) to manufacture and supply thin crust pizza bread. The thin crust will be distributed in refrigerated trucks to the 16 Domino’s distribution centers in box. The box of thin crust will be shipped stacked over 36’’x36’’x6’’ pallet.
The detail of Domino’s thin crust is shown in table 3: