- System sales up 2%, pre-tax profit up 8.4%
- Actively looking for acquisitions
- Comfortable with 2025 consensus forecasts
Pizza chain Domino’s Pizza (DOM) served up positive like-for-like system sales growth and an 8.4% increase in underlying pre-tax profit for the year to December, broadly in line with market forecasts.
The shares flip-flopped between gains and losses before settling down 3% to 284.3p by midday and are down 23% over the last year against a 2% gain for the FTSE 250 mid-cap index.
Chief executive Andrew Rennie commented: ‘We've capitalised on our competitive strengths, agreed a new five-year framework with our franchise partners and opened 54 stores.
‘Our trading momentum accelerated as the year progressed, our delivery channel returned to growth and we delivered strong underlying earnings growth.’
STRATEGIC PROGRESS
As well as agreeing a new five-year framework with franchise partners, Domino’s disposed of its London corporate estate for £34.8 million and acquired Shorecal which operates 34 stores in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The company purchased an additional 24% of Victa DP, its joint venture in Northern Ireland, and completed a £11.4 million investment in DP Poland (DPP:AIM), taking its stake to 12.1%.
‘We continue to explore targeted, accretive opportunities for a second brand, where we can leverage the scale and capabilities of the Group and deliver attractive returns to shareholders,’ the firm explained.
STRONG GROWTH
System sales were up 2% to £1.57 billion on a comparable 52-week basis with like-for-like sales up 0.7%.
Underlying pre-tax profit increased 8.4% to £107 million, translating into 13% growth in EPS (earnings per share) driven by increased EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and fewer shares in issue thanks to the share buyback programme.
Rennie said 2025 had started positively in an uncertain market and the firm expected to deliver 2025 EBITDA in line with consensus forecasts of £146.6 million, excluding an expected £3 million positive contribution from the Victa investment.
In the first 10 weeks of 2025, total system sales were up 2.4% and orders and like-for-like sales were up 0.7%.
Shore Capital said: ‘Alongside the growing estate, we remain encouraged by the digital performance, the improvement in orders with lower delivery times and growing app members (up 2.7 percentage points to 76.3% of online orders).’
