Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij recalls his beginnings as a delivery boy in Brisbane 35 years ago

Don Meij became a pizza delivery boy because he loved driving cars. Thirty five years on he says he still craves a slice of the stuff that’s helped him atop a $6bn empire.

Meij still sees himself as the entrepreneur who began delivering pizza in school and then university to bankroll his dreams of building a business.

Don Meij is obsessive about quite a few things. He loves technology and gadgets, is a car enthusiast, loves cooking on his backyard barbecue and, naturally, as the chief executive of Domino’s Pizza he really loves scoffing pizza whenever he gets the chance.

“There’s, what, 21 meals in a week? And I love pizza, I crave pizza and people think it’s crazy. And the funny thing about people that work in the Domino’s world, is that we love pizza, we don’t only just love our own pizza, we love to try other products because it keeps your mind creative.

“I had pizza today! I’ve had pizza twice in the last six days!,” an excitable Meij told The Weekend Australian as he celebrates 35 years at Domino’s Pizza where he started as a delivery boy zipping around in a car in the suburbs of Brisbane to now be the chief executive of the $6bn publicly listed pizza empire with stores stretching from Australia to Denmark.

Back then he was helping out a mate at Silvio’s Dial-A-Pizza while later studying to be a high-school teacher, earning some cash on the side as he knocked on people’s doors handing over a hot pizza and hoping to get paid by the customer.

Don Meij when he was helping out a mate driving for Silvio’s Dial-A-Pizza.

“He needed more drivers, he knew how much I loved driving my car, I’m a bit of a car nut, and yes, I remember in the beginning the insecurities of just getting out there on the road and knocking on somebody’s door.”

But as he got closer to working in a real classroom as a teacher he realised it wasn’t for him.

“I was toward the end of my degree and I realised that I didn’t want to be a high-school teacher and there was a full time job available in the store I was at in Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane, I applied to be the manager and I began to manage that. But I thought it was only going to be for, like nine months before I would start a new degree and here I am some 35 years later.”

Back then the universe of pizza styles was pretty limited; an anchovy splayed across the top was considered sophisticated.

“Everything changed dramatically with the product because when I started we had five pizzas on the menu, it was very simple, and in terms of crust we had just pan and thin - well today we’ve got five different crust variables, we’ve got menus that could be 20 to 30 different pizzas and the variety of toppings from Camembert to feta or prawn.

A very young Don Meij when he started at Domino's Pizza as a delivery boy.

“In those days the most exotic thing on a menu item was an anchovy. Whereas now we do pulled pork, we put duck on pizza, Wagyu and some of the ingredients we sell around the world get even more dramatic than that such as in places like Japan.”

Silvio’s became well known in Brisbane’s northern suburbs for its bright yellow delivery van with the giant red telephone handle on its roof - Meij and other staff would get paid extra to drive that around - and it later morphed into Domino’s Pizza which Meij would take to the ASX in 2005 with a float price of $2.20 and which by 2021 was trading just below $160 a share.

An early mentor for Meij was Tom Monaghan, the US entrepreneur who founded the Domino’s brand in the 1960s and - to use Meij’s words - drew out the road map for the kind of pizza business Domino’s would become.

“There’s been some great Domino’s operators around the world that inspired me.

“The founder of the brand, originally, a gentleman called Tom Monaghan, he’s still alive and he built the original road map which was the world’s first delivery business that was shooting for 30 minute and that became the benchmark for everybody. And he pioneered the corrugated pizza box for example.

“He worked on conveyor convection ovens, car top signs and all the sort of things that we associate with really efficient delivery and being unique to delivery and he laid the road map for everything we do at Domino’s.”

The word ‘obsessive’ gets thrown around a lot at Domino’s, especially when it comes to that ‘last mile’ of delivering a hot pizza to a customer’s front door.

“Everything we do at Domino’s is directed and designed to be delivered, so that makes us quite an obsessive delivery business and it‘s still how we think today but obviously with a lot more technology and knowledge.”

Atop the pizza empire and elbow deep in pizza dough for 35 years, Meij has also had a perfect view of the quickly shifting landscape of delivery and consumer expectations, which always remain elevated.

Now more than ever technology is supercharging the way we look at ordering a simple pizza, and for younger people the idea of picking up a telephone and ordering a pizza from the store is as alien as the old phones with a rotary dial.

Dominos Pizza chief executive Don Meij at the company headquarters in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“In our early days of Silvio’s and then Domino’s we were the pioneers in the delivery side of the business. Someone might have got a delivery like three or four times a year 35 years ago whereas today a more frequent user could be buying a pizza every 10 days, so far more frequent and part of the lifestyle.”

This is especially true of Domino’s younger customers.

“Today, young consumers almost expect delivery is just a common thought. They think everything should be delivered, many of them live in a delivered environment, in various parts of the world and it’s just constantly climbing.”

Meij still sees himself as the entrepreneur who began delivering pizza in school and then university to bankroll his dreams of building a business and it’s a philosophy he hopes is part of Domino’s culture.

“We still see ourselves as entrepreneurs operating a business.

“I’m obviously a public company CEO, and I’m very well aware of all the proper governance issues to operate a business but at the same time in my heart, at the centre of who I am, I feel like I’m an entrepreneur that’s continuing to drive this business with many other small operators all over the world.”

Originally published as Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij recalls his beginnings as a delivery boy in Brisbane 35 years ago