Sbarro: The Mall Food Court Strategy, Two Bankruptcies and Pizza Cucinova

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Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro emigrated from Naples, Italy, in 1956 with their sons Joseph, Mario and Anthony, opening an Italian grocery in Brooklyn that became a restaurant selling New York style pizza by the slice. In 1970 they opened their first mall location at Brooklyn's Kings Plaza shopping center and from then on built only where foot traffic already existed: malls, department stores, college campuses, airports, turnpike service areas, casinos, the Pentagon and naval bases. Premium rent to mall developers and airport authorities took the place of advertising. That reach carried risk. In August 2001 a suicide bombing at a Sbarro in Jerusalem killed 16 people and wounded 130, and weeks later the September 11 attacks destroyed both of its World Trade Center restaurants, one in the underground mall and one on the South Tower observation deck.

Private equity firm MidOcean Partners acquired Sbarro in early 2007 in a leveraged buyout. With debt payments due just as mall traffic fell to online shopping, Sbarro filed for Chapter 11 in April 2011, when it was the fifth largest pizza chain in the country, and again in March 2014. It closed 182 locations, moved its headquarters from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, and was down to 318 U.S. restaurants by 2016, less than half its count 12 years earlier. Ten-year mall leases and tiny kitchens built to reheat slices for walk-up customers left little room to pivot to delivery. Abroad, the brand grew past 600 locations in 28 countries.

• In 2012 CEO James J. Greco pushed a new pizza recipe, and in 2015 the Italian flag logo gave way to a pizza slice outline reading NYC 1956.
• The fast casual spinoff Pizza Cucinova, launched in October 2013 with made-to-order Neapolitan pizzas baked in under three minutes, closed in 2020.
• Sbarro was the third pizza chain to declare bankruptcy in less than a year, after Round Table Pizza and Uno Chicago Grill.
• Its first Philippines store opened in 1990 and the country had 56 by 2023; a 2012 franchise deal targeted India and a 2020 partnership entered the U.K. through service stations.
• After Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Yale researchers gave Sbarro their lowest grade, digging in, for continuing business in Russia.