Domino's shows improving market in Ireland amid profits boost
Domino’s Pizza has boosted annual profits after it sold 75m pizzas last year and spiced up menus with nachos and hot doughnuts.
The Milton Keynes-based franchise business said the performance of its UK division was “excellent” as underlying profits lifted 15.1% to £54.8m (€74.9m).
Shares jumped 8% in the wake of the results, with Domino reporting that its 724 UK stores open for more than a year lifted like-for-like sales by 11.3%.
It opened 40 new UK shops during the period and these achieved £13,555 (€18,518) in average weekly takings, 6.9% better than those opened the year before.
The business also runs stores in Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, but the company said that the UK was the star performer in its estate as more than half of total orders were made by customers online.
About 8.2m customers downloaded the Domino’s app and a recent project with Microsoft has enabled gamers to order a pizza from an Xbox console.
The business, which has almost 900 outlets, founded its first UK store in Luton in 1985.
Chief executive David Wild said: “It has been another strong year for Domino’s, particularly in our core UK market, confirming the strength of our customer offer.”
Internationally, its markets in Ireland and Switzerland showed improvement but there is still “much work to do” at its loss making operations in Germany.
N+1 Singer analyst Sahill Shan said: “The UK business remains in rude health.”
