ANN ARBOR – The world's best-selling pizza company, Domino's Pizza, is expanding its footprint in Ann Arbor.
For years, the company has been focusing on building cutting-edge technology at its World Resource Center in Tree Town. Those teams will now have a new home at the Domino's Innovation Garage located at Domino's Farms.
Recommended Videos
The new workspace aims to foster collaboration and innovation and will celebrate its grand opening Wednesday.
"Domino's Innovation Garage is focused on accelerating Domino's spirit of creativity and collaboration," Domino's Chief Technology Officer Kelly Garcia said in a statement. "As a pizza company with a focus on technology, we want our team members to have a workspace that encourages experimentation and fosters an environment to take risks, test innovations and fail-fast so they can bring their best cutting-edge ideas to life for the brand's customers and stores."
The new two-story building has 33,000 square feet and features an open-concept space for 150 employees. The Domino's Innovation Garage has private meeting rooms, collaboration workspaces and a fully-functioning pizza theater.
✉ Like what you're reading? Sign up for our email newsletter here!
The theater will be used by project-based teams to test new technology, such as a carryout tracker and ordering kiosks in a mock store setting.
Teams at the Domino's Innovation Garage will also be testing delivery innovations in a dedicated space, including its GPS delivery tracker and how customers interact with the company's autonomous pizza delivery vehicles and robots. Later this year, Domino's will be carrying out testing with Nuro's R2 -- an unmanned vehicle.
In addition to future technology research and development, the facility will hold all of the company's in-store technology, AnyWare ordering technology and a quality assurance lab.
"Having a hub for our community of smart, creative and dynamic team members to develop our brand and take it to the next level is important for our continued success," Garcia said in a statement. "We're proud to now have a space dedicated to learning, exploring, testing and launching new ideas in a way that only Domino's can do."
About Domino's Pizza®
Founded in 1960, Domino's Pizza is the largest pizza company in the world based on retail sales, with a significant business in both delivery and carryout pizza. It ranks among the world's top public restaurant brands with a global enterprise of more than 16,300 stores in over 85 markets. Domino's had global retail sales of over $13.5 billion in 2018, with nearly $6.6 billion in the U.S. and more than $6.9 billion internationally. Emphasis on technology innovation helped Domino's achieve more than half of all global retail sales in 2018 from digital channels.
In the U.S., Domino's generates over 65% of sales via digital channels and has developed several innovative ordering platforms, including Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo and Twitter – as well as Domino's Hotspots®, an ordering platform featuring over 200,000 unique, non-traditional delivery locations. In late 2017, Domino's began an industry-first test of self-driving vehicle delivery, and in June 2019 announced a partnership with Nuro, furthering its exploration and testing of autonomous pizza delivery.
All About Ann Arbor is powered by ClickOnDetroit/WDIV.