Domino’s Pizza today said that its performance in its home UK and Republic of Ireland market had been robust, with strong online sales and new store openings, but that its international sales remained “disappointing”.
In the UK market alone, it said in a first quarter trading update, system sales were up by 4.7%, and like-for-like sales up by 3.1%, while online sales grew by 8.5% Online accounted for 90.5% of delivered sales, and 81.7% of total sales. Four new stores opened at the same time. The company said it was working with franchisees to grow sales volumes with the aim of opening new stores.
In the Republic of Ireland, online sales grew by 18.5%, while system sales were 7.5% ahead in local currency.
The pizza home delivery business said that the group sales reached £324.4m in the 13 weeks to March 31 – 4.3% up on the same time last year. UK and Republic of Ireland sales of £299.3m were 4.8% up on last time, but international sales of £25.1m were down by 2% – or up by 1.1% when currency fluctuations were discounted. So far this year the company has opened 11 stores, including seven in the UK, taking the group total to 1,271. Its Warrington supply chain centre now serves 449 stores.
Chief executive David Wild said: “With continued like-for-like growth, the year has started well across our core UK and Republic of Ireland markets, which account for 90% of our business. Our digital expertise remains a key driver of customer engagement with online accounting for a record 81.7% of total sales in the UK. We remain in open and ongoing dialogue with our UK franchisees, actively exploring win-win solutions for stimulating growth and new store openings.”
But he said that international performance “remains disappointing and trading visibility is limited.” A new management team is working to improve performance across its existing stores. Sales grew in Iceland (+3%) and Sweden (+15.6%) but fell in Norway (-1%) and Switzerland (-1.1%). The company said it no longer expected the division to break even this year.
Image courtesy of Domino’s Pizza Group
