Domino’s Pizza Irish sales jump 4%

Leading quick-service restaurant chain Domino’s Pizza has reported a 4% jump in like-for-like sales for its Irish operations to €37.6m, for the first nine months of the year.

In a trading update, published yesterday, the group, which operates the Domino’s brand in Britain, Ireland, and parts of mainland Europe, said that it continued to grow market share in Ireland and saw its best quarter of the year here, performance-wise, in the three months to the end of September.

In the third quarter, Domino’s saw a 5.3% jump in like-for-like sales at its Irish division to €12.2m.

“Helped by the continued economic recovery, especially in Dublin, the Republic had its best quarter of the year so far,” the company said in a statement. “We recently launched ‘Pan Pizza’ into this market and continue to grow market share.”

In July, at the time of its half-year results, the company said it had seen continued “solid recovery” in Ireland and expected sales to remain steady for the remainder of the year; although it was doing better in city locations than rurally. The company has nearly 50 outlets in Ireland, most of which are franchise operated.

In its core market of the UK — where the company has opened 21 stores so far this year — Domino’s saw like-for-like sales growth of 12.9% and 11.8% for the third quarter and year-to-date respectively.

In Britain, the percentage of food orders made online grew from 62.4% to nearly 71% in the last quarter, with half of those orders coming from mobile devices.

David Wild, Domino’s chief executive, warned: “We face more challenging comparatives for the final quarter.” On the continent, Domino’s said it had had “an excellent quarter” in Switzerland, while the transformation of its German operations was continuing.