Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 4676P

Domino's Pizza Group PLC

02 October 2013

 



2 October 2013

DOMINO'S PIZZA GROUP plc

Quarter Three Interim Management Statement

13 weeks to 29 September 2013

Domino's Pizza Group plc ("Domino's", the "Company" or the "Group"), the leading pizza delivery company with stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, today announces its Interim Management Statement for the 13 week period to 29 September 2013 (the "period").

United Kingdom

The Company has continued to make solid progress since the half year.  System sales for the period were up by 10.4% to £140.9m (2012: £127.6m) with year to date system sales up by 11.1% to £437.9m (2012: £394.1m). Despite the impact of an extended period of unusually warm weather, like-for-like sales in the period in the 669 mature stores were up by 4.0% (2012: 3.7%) with a strong end to the last two periods of the quarter. Year to date like-for-like sales were up by 5.6% (2012: 5.1%).

Online sales also continue to grow strongly, with digital sales now accounting for 62.4% of UK delivered sales (2012: 58.4%) in the period. Total online sales for the period rose by 19.8% to £72.3m (2012: £60.4m) and have reached £230.7m for the year to date (2012: £177.6m). Mobile sales continue to rise sharply, up by 102.5%, and now account for 29.3% of total online sales.  

During the period, Domino's opened eight new stores in the UK with 23 new stores now open this year. As well as the usual planning challenges, we introduced a new store design in early 2013, which pushed back the opening schedule towards the latter part of the year. We now anticipate opening around 50 stores this financial year. At the period end, Domino's had a total of 750 stores in the UK (2012: 700).

Domino's continues to place marketing at the heart of the business and, during the period, we launched a new above and below the line advertising campaign, 'Greatness', which premiered on UK & ROI primetime TV.  Domino's also undertook a major TV sponsorship deal in the UK, partnering with The X Factor App and further cementing the brand's ownership of the Saturday night TV experience. 

International

System sales in the Republic of Ireland rose by 3.7% to €11.5m in the period (2012: €11.1m) and year to date were up 4.5% to €36.1m (2012: €34.6m). Like-for-like sales have now seen nine periods of consecutive positive growth and, in the quarter, were up by 2.4%, despite the warm weather in the period as mentioned above. Year to date like-for-like sales were up 5.2% (2012: 1.2%). During the period, a high profile marketing activity saw the brand sponsor the primetime Friday night entertainment programme 'The Hit', which helped underpin the sales growth. There are 48 stores in the Republic of Ireland (2012: 48).

The German market generated system sales in the period of €2.8m (2012: €1.0m) and like-for-like sales of 9.4% (2012: 16.8%). Year to date, system sales were up 336.4% to €7.4m (2012: €2.2m) and like-for-like were up 18.7% (2012: 20.9%). The franchisee stores continue to make good sales progress and at higher sales levels than the corporate stores.

At the end of the period, Germany had 25 stores in total, 15 of which were corporate stores. No new stores were opened in the period (2012: zero), the year to date total therefore remaining at seven (2012: four).

As highlighted at the interim results, the decision has been taken to transition the majority of the German corporate stores across to franchisee management as soon as practicable. The business is making good progress with this process and we are confident that a good proportion of these stores will have transferred into franchisee hands by the year end.

Switzerland continues to perform well with system sales in the period of CHF 3.0m and like-for-like sales rising by 4.7% and 6.2% for the year to date.  At the end of the period there were 10 stores (2012: 12) in this market.

Lance Batchelor, Chief Executive, commented:

 "I am pleased to report another quarter of solid like-for-like sales growth across all four of our markets. The introduction of our excellent new store design meant a delay in first half store openings, but the programme is now well underway. We are making good progress in transferring our German corporate stores across to franchisees, which will be a significant step forward in the evolution of this new growth market.

"We have a number of exciting initiatives in place across all our markets for the fourth quarter and we are confident of meeting City expectations for the full year." 

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

Domino's Pizza Group plc:
Lance Batchelor, Chief Executive Officer	01908 580604
Lee Ginsberg, Chief Financial Officer	01908 580611
Sarah McGhie, Head of PR	01908 580654
MHP:
Tim McCall, Simon Hockridge, Naomi Lane	020 3128 8100
Numis Securities Limited:
David Poutney, James Serjeant	020 7260 1000

Notes to Editors:

Domino's Pizza Group plc is the leading player in the fast-growing pizza delivery market and holds the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino's Pizza stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The first UK store opened in Luton in 1985 and the first Irish store opened in 1991. In April 2011, the Group acquired a majority stake in the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino's Pizza stores in Germany. In September 2012, the Group acquired the master franchise for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein and an option to open stores in Austria prior to the end of 2014.

As at 29 September 2013, there were 833 stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. Of these, 642 stores were in England, 51 were in Scotland, 33 were in Wales, 20 were in Northern Ireland, one was on the Isle of Man, 3 were mobile units, 48 were in the Republic of Ireland, 25 were in Germany and 10 were in Switzerland.

Founded in 1960, Domino's Pizza is one of the world's leading pizza delivery brands. Through its primarily franchised system, Domino's Pizza operates a global network of more than 10,000 Domino's Pizza stores in 73 international markets. Domino's Pizza has a singular focus - the home delivery of pizza, freshly made to order with high quality ingredients.

Customers in the UK can order online at www.dominos.co.uk, in the Republic of Ireland at www.dominos.ie and in Germany at www.dominos.de. In addition, mobile customers can order by downloading Domino's free iPhone, iPad and Android apps.

For photography, please visit the media centre at www.dominos.uk.com, contact the Domino's Press Office on [phone], or call MHP on [phone].

 

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