Domino’s Pizza sales rise as customers snap-up meal deals

Domino’s Pizza has recorded a 3.4 per cent rise in Irish sales and said it was close to naming its new boss.

Britain’s biggest pizza delivery firm announced a 10.8 per cent rise in first-quarter UK underlying sales.

The company said on Wednesday sales at UK stores open over a year rose 10.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to March 30th, helped by its most popular ever meal deal - a £14.99 large pizza and three sides “Winter Survival” offering that proved particularly successful in the early wet weeks of 2014.

Online sales continued to grow strongly too, with 69.4 per cent of UK delivered sales now coming via the internet, up from 61.9 per cent in the same period a year ago.

The group, which has over 860 stores mainly in the UK, said underlying sales were also up across its smaller businesses in Ireland, Switzerland and Germany, although its performance in the latter had been weighed down by a restructuring there.

In February, Domino’s reported a 1.9 per cent rise in pretax profit to £47.6 million but booked heavy exceptional costs related to impairments and other charges at its loss-making business in Germany, where expansion plans have hit trouble.

The firm hopes to boost German sales by reducing costs and transferring its poorly-trading own-managed stores to more successful franchisees during the first half of 2014.

Domino's added it expected to name a new chief executive soon. Ex-Halfords boss David Wild has been temporarily running the group since the end of January following Lance Batchelor's surprise decision to join travel and insurance group Saga.

Shares in Domino’s closed at 557.5 pence on Tuesday, down 7.5 per cent on a year ago, valuing the business at £924 million.

Reuters