Profits rise 11 per cent at Domino's Pizza

Profit before tax rose 10.8 per cent to 46.7m pounds in the 53 weeks to December 30th at Domino's Pizza Group which included profits made at the company's operations in Germany and Switzerland.

Like-for-like sales grew 5.0% in 612 UK mature stores compared to in the previous year.

Statutory basic earnings per share rose 14.4% to 19.04p while the final dividend increased by 16.2% to 7.90p per share.

Some 69 new stores opened in the period, compared to 62 in 2011, with two closures resulting in a total of 805 stores in four countries as of December 30th 2012.

Online system sales increased by 46.3% to £268.6m, with online sales accounting for 55.7% of UK delivered sales, up from just 44.3% the year before. Of this, 19.7% of online orders were taken through a mobile device, compared with 10.1% previously.

Commenting on the results Chief Executive Officer, Lance Batchelor, said: "Despite a very challenging economic environment, our people and our franchisees have delivered another impressive set of results. This performance further demonstrates the resilience of the Domino's Pizza home delivery market.

"We are making encouraging progress in Germany. This market has good demographics for our business and we are seeing improving trading performances from these stores. I look forward to reporting further progress in due course.

He concluded: "I am optimistic about the future and, with the support of our franchisees, we will continue to grow this outstanding business by focusing on opening new stores, testing new store formats and developing new products while always ensuring the customer is at the heart of everything we do."

MF