Did you know…
Domino’s Pizza was founded by brothers Tom and Jim Monaghan in 1960. At the time, it wasn’t called Domino’s (it was an established restaurant called DomiNick’s), and the brothers faced plenty of challenges getting their new business off the ground. Today, Domino’s Pizza is the #2 pizza chain, second only to Pizza Hut.
In 1986, Tom Monaghan wrote an autobiography entitled Pizza Tiger, detailing how he went from one store to thousands of franchise stores. Some of the revelations in the book are a little surprising. Here we go!
- His brother sold his 50% share in Domino’s for a used 1959 VW Beetle
About eight months after taking over an ailing pizza restaurant, Jim Monaghan wanted out. He owned 50% of the business (which today rakes in over $10 billion annually) and cashed out by taking the beat-up ’59 Volkswagen Beetle the brothers had bought as a delivery car.
- He threatened pizza thieves with a meat tenderizer and fisticuffs
- He met his future wife on his first pizza delivery
- He was swindled…Repeatedly
- He’s obsessed with Frank Lloyd Wright
- He grew up in a Roman Catholic orphanage and founded a Roman Catholic University
- His best employees are known as Dominoids
- He maintains a serious diet, and badgers others to lose weight
- He bought the Detroit Tigers at just the right time
- He’s a doctor of pizzerology