The Caldwell brothers, Charles and Adrian, will walk away with €26 million in cash between them and €17 million worth of shares in Domino’s Pizza Group, which this week bought their Irish franchise.
That is on top of their portion of tens of millions of euro worth of dividends the pair have taken from the company in the past three years alone.
The Caldwells, whose company Shorecal controls 34 of the 99 Domino’s franchises on the island of Ireland, sold their shares in the company to Domino’s Pizza Group plc (DPG), which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
According to a market filing by DPG, the total value of the deal is €72 million, 61 per cent of which will be in cash and 39 per cent in shares in DPG, the precise number of which will be determined based on a calculation of the company’s share price over the last three months.
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DPG did not break down the precise details of that arrangement, but if the cash portion of the price is distributed according to percentage shareholding in Shorecal, then Charles Caldwell will receive just over €22 million in cash, Adrian Caldwell will get just under €4 million, and their fellow shareholders in the Bronfman family – of the Canadian Seagram’s Gin empire – will get just over €17 million.
The company’s filings show that a further €1 million could go to George Bertram, chief executive of Shorecal, who was awarded shares “in consideration of employment services rendered” just before the deal was announced.
Meanwhile, the share portion of the deal could see Adrian Caldwell get shares worth about €2.5 million while Charles Caldwell’s shares could be worth more than €14 million. The Bronfmans, meanwhile, could end up with shares worth more than €11 million.
It is just the latest windfall for the Caldwells, whose ownership of such a large chunk of Ireland’s Domino’s pizza restaurants has proved highly lucrative over recent years.
Indeed, one of the restaurants at the heart of their empire, in the Square shopping centre in Tallaght, was once described as the busiest Domino’s restaurant in the world and the first to hit an annual turnover of $3 million (€2.76 million), making more than 200 pizzas an hour.
The Caldwells bought the Irish business from former franchisees Kevin and Murph O’Driscoll in 2006, around the time the Tallaght store was being hailed as one of the busiest in the world. According to reports at the time they paid about €22 million to buy the O’Driscolls’ franchise, which included locations in Rathmines, Dundrum, Letterkenny and Naas.
The franchise was so successful it drew the attention of the Bronfman family, who bought a one-third stake in the company in 2018.
Around the same time Domino’s Pizza Group, the master franchise holder for the UK and Ireland, also took a minority stake for €12.5 million, which valued the company at €83 million.
Since then Shorecal’s profits have continued to grow. It had revenues of €53.7 million in 2019, which rose to €55.2 million in 2020, then to €60.2 million in 2021. The most recent accounts show that revenues were €61.8 million in 2022. No figure has yet been released for 2023.
During those years the company paid out substantial dividends to its shareholders. Shorecal paid a dividend of €10.1 million in 2021 and doubled that to €20.2 million in 2022, accounts show.
The purchase of Shorecal is part of a wider strategy by DNG to aggressively grow its number of restaurants in both the UK and Ireland. In its stock exchange filing, it stated its aim to “accelerate Shorecal’s growth, materially increase the store count, and leverage the capacity in the new supply chain centre”.
Precisely what that means for other Irish Domino’s franchise holders remains to be seen, but the Caldwells are not the only ones making significant profits from operating under the Domino’s pizza banner here.
Terence and Peter Starrett operate a number of franchises north and south. One of their companies, Pizza Market Ltd, had accumulated profits at the end of 2022 in the amount of €1.7 million. Another company, Pepperoni Industries Ltd, had accumulated profits of €3.7 million. A company called Dough Star had profits of €1.2 million.
Kevin and Peter Blessing, meanwhile, have nine premises, including restaurants in Crumlin, Raheny, Drumcondra, Clondalkin, Balbriggan and Clonee in Co Meath. Their company, Palmway Holdings, had accumulated profits at the end of 2022 of €6.3 million, up from €1.2 million the year before.
Their main holding company, Palmway Property, showed revenues of €23 million at the end of 2022, up from €22.1 million a year earlier, though the company does not break down how much of that came from its Domino’s franchises and how much might have come from other retail operations. Palmway Property had accumulated profits of €7.9 million.
Another substantial franchise holder, Cathal McDonnell of Maano Foods, has several premises in Munster, including Dungarvan, Tralee, Clonmel and Cork, where company accounts show healthy profits.
Maano Foods (Cork) had accumulated profits of €1.4 million last year, after a profit for the year of €306,669. The company behind his restaurant in Tralee had accumulated profits of €272,633, and Maano Foods Clonmel had €165,390. Maano Foods Dungarvan had retained profits of €371,084.
Meanwhile, other significant franchise holders include Serghei Jolondcovschi, who has premises in Carlow and Wexford. His company CSJ Master Limited had accumulated profits of €581,671 at the end of 2022, while another company called Valexia had accumulated profits of €209,382.
And Galway-based Justin Ward had accumulated profits of €283,861 through a company called Ward Restaurants, and another called Revington Foods had accumulated profits of €270,517 and valued itself at €4 million on a goodwill basis.
Domino’s was contacted for comment.
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