Financial News
- 23 July 2012, 23:29
Domino's Pizza Gets Larger Slice Of Market
Domino's Pizza Group has seen a rise in UK like-for-like sales of 5.7% for the first half of 2012, amid the ongoing economic downturn.
While a number of sectors have been hit over the summer, Britain's biggest pizza delivery firm saw sales boosted both by Euro 2012 and the decision by many people to stay home during the wet weather.
Domino's, which operates the British and Irish franchises of the global delivery brand, said pre-tax profit rose to £21.5m in the six months to June 24.
Sales were up from £19m the year before.
Domino's opened 23 new shops and closed one during the period giving it a total outlet count of 748.
The firm is also increasing its expansion into the German market.
In a sign of further integration of digital into the food sector, it saw online sales rise by 43.4% to £121.2m.
Like for like sales in the UK rose to 5.7% from 3.4% in the year before, while like for like sales in the Republic of Ireland were boosted by 2.9%.
"Trading since the half year end has continued in line with our expectations," chief executive Lance Batchelor said.
"While the consumer backdrop remains tough we are confident about the future and our expectations for the year as a whole remain unchanged."
The company has performed well in the UK during the economic downturn as cash-strapped consumers stay in and order in takeaways rather than going out to eat.
Adrian Wagstaff
7:31pm on 23/7/2012
Since I started reading the news in about 1980, I've noticed the businesses which open many shops then seem to try to expand globally by opening shops overseas. Then they find, British people like their products but other countries aren't used to either them or the shops. That's not always the case. They seem to spend a lot of money on advertising, considering all the leaflets, although that doesn't seem to affect a lot of businesses. Personally, I would not want to set up a pizza business in Germany because I've tried German pizzas, myself and I think the competition there would be very difficult to beat. I'm not saying Domino's aren't as good. Not at all. I'm just saying, I wouldn't want to try competing with the German pizza market. I don't think I'd want to try competing with any German food shops, really, not having lived in the country for seven years.