Russian restaurateur Anton Pinskiy and rapper Timati took over the Russian assets of Domino’s Pizza (Picture: Reuters)
A pro-Kremlin rapper whose song lyrics include ‘my best friend is President Putin’ has taken over Domino’s Pizza in Russia after its operator there filed for bankruptcy.
Musician-turned-businessman Timati and restaurateur Anton Pinskiy said they would run the restaurants under the barely changed brand Domino Pizza, with the ‘i’ in Domino replaced by the equivalent Russian letter и.
They said they would retain the franchise’s partners, 120 restaurants and more than 2,000 employees in Russia.
The announcement came nine days after DP Eurasia, the operator of the Domino’s Pizza brand in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, said it would file for bankruptcy for its Russian business after giving up attempts to sell it.
On Wednesday, a DP Eurasia spokesperson said the company had no further comment beyond confirming that the bankruptcy petition had been filed and no sale process had occurred.
Western companies that pulled out of Russia when it sent its army into Ukraine last year have in many cases had to write off the value of their business there or sell their operations at huge discounts.
The pair take part in a ceremony opening the new restaurant chain Domino Pizza in Moscow (Picture: Reuters)
Russian rapper Timati has long supported the Kremlin with his music (Picture: Reuters)
Russia passed a decree in April allowing the state to take over the assets of companies from ‘unfriendly’ countries in retaliation for foreign moves against Russian companies.
In July, the government seized control of the Russian subsidiaries of French yoghurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg.
Dutch brewer Heineken said last week it had sold its Russian operations for a symbolic one euro.
The shakeout has led to several high-profile rebrandings, with Lego stores becoming ‘World of Cubes’, Krispy Kreme morphing into ‘Krunchy Dream’, and McDonald’s restaurants being relaunched as ‘Vkusno & tochka’, or ‘Tasty and that’s it’.
Participants surround pizza packages during a ceremony opening the new restaurant chain Domino Pizza (Picture: Reuters)
Timati, real name Timur Yunusov, has long supported the Kremlin with his music.
In 2015 he rapped on a song that includes the lyric, ‘My best friend is Putin’, and described the Russian leader as a ‘die hard superhero’.
After the Starbucks deal, Pinskiy and Timati unveiled their new brand, Stars Coffee, in August 2022.
Timati said: ‘Everybody knows about our super successful case with Stars Coffee. There was a lot of scepticism before (the launch of Stars Coffee).
‘Everybody was expecting the quality to drop, the drinks to become more boring, for prices to rise.
‘But, in the end, we managed to stay in the same price range more or less, and also succeeded in our business case, making really tasty coffee with great extras, and created a fantastic loyalty programme.’
‘So we have experience and we are certain that we can make pizza more interesting and better.’
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