The UK franchise of Domino’s Pizza served up strong sales for the first half of 2023 on the back of new store openings, demand for deals and improved delivery times.
Domino’s group revenues jumped 19.6 per cent over the six months to 25 June, from £278.3million to £332.9million, as it benefitted from the launch of 29 new stores.
Like-for-like system sales increased by 9.7 per cent from £710.5million to £766.4million over the same time period, with an 8.2 per cent rise in the latest quarter.
Consequently, Domino’s expects to post an underlying core profit of between £132million and £138million for the year, up from previous forecasts of £127.6million.
Domino’s said it benefitted from store openings, demand for deals from customers and improved delivery times
Total orders for the London-listed business was at 35.4m over the six months and Domino’s said trading momentum has been ‘encouraging’ over the first three weeks of the current half-year, with a 7.9 per cent like-for-like rise.
The group also revealed a new £70million buyback plan that will start after the current £20m buyback which the pizza business announced back in May.
As of 28 July, £13.9million has been repurchased.
Domino’s shares were up 12.8 per cent to 392p in afternoon trading on Tuesday.
Elias Diaz Sese, interim chief executive officer, of Domino’s said: ‘We have delivered a strong first half of 2023 with continued growth in orders and sales.
‘Thanks to our alignment with our brilliant franchise partners, we have been able to accelerate our progress on the strategic initiatives set out at the beginning of the year, with a significant acceleration in store openings, greater app penetration and material improvements in delivery times.
‘Today’s results are testament to the hard work of our colleagues and franchise partners who have worked relentlessly to ensure nobody delivers like Domino’s.’
Andrew Rennie will take over permanently as chief executive officer of the business from next week.
Back in March, Domino’s received a record 18.5 million orders during the final three months of last year as the FIFA World Cup drove a surge in takeaways.
A total of 18.5 million transactions were made on the group’s platform during the fourth quarter of 2022, a 4.1 per cent rise on the previous year, with a decline in deliveries being offset by a 27.9 per cent jump in collection orders.
This followed a drop in demand during the previous six months amid the cost-of-living pressures for consumers and the absence of Covid-19 restrictions encouraging people to eat at pubs and restaurants again.