LFL sales pick up in 2012 at Domino's Pizza

Profits from pizza delivery firm Domino's Pizza were marginally ahead of market expectations despite its German operations taking a slice from the pie.

Profit before tax for the 52 weeks to Christmas Day 2011 rose by 14.6% to £43.6m from £38.0m the year before, though this figure excluded losses of £1.4m from the group's fledgling German operations; with German losses included, the profit of £42.2m was slightly ahead of market expectations of £42.1m.

Diluted earnings per share rose 14.9% to 19.24p (consensus: 18.89p) from 16.75p the year before, and the full year dividend has been hiked by 20.6% to 12.30p (consensus: 12.01p) from 2010's 10.20p.

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Like-for-like (LFL) sales in in 2011 were up year-on-year by 3.0%.

"Trading has continued to be robust during the first seven weeks of 2012 with like-for-like sales for the group increasing by 3.7%," revealed Lance Batchelor, Chief Executive Officer of Domino's.

Analysts were expecting a more impressive uplift in LFL sales given that sales in the early part of 2011 would have been dampened by the increase in the rate of value added tax to 20%.

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