Football fans boost Domino’s sales

Domino’s, which has 43 stores in Yorkshire, yesterday revealed that the World Cup provided a welcome boost for its first half sales.

Pre-tax profits for the 26 weeks to June 29, excluding exceptional items, grew 10.1 per cent to £24.5m while total sales rose 14.9 per cent to £375m.

The chain’s core UK market grew like-for-like sales by 11.3 per cent including a one per cent boost from the impact of armchair football fans dialling up - or increasingly going online - to order.

Sales were bolstered by digital investment, promotions and products including a “Carnivale” range to coincide with the tournament and a “Footy Fan Feast” offer. New chief executive David Wild said it was a strong first-half performance and pledged to drive forward the web and smartphone offering, with mobile expected to become the most popular channel in 2015.

But the group endured a tough six months in Germany where like-for-like sales fell by 1.7 per cent as it shut poorly-performing stores and cut marketing spending as the business undergoes a “transition period”.

Republic of Ireland sales continued a “solid recovery” to grow 3.2 per cent while in Switzerland, after a slow start to the year, they were up 2.9 per cent.

Mr Wild said Domino’s had now seen three successive quarters of double-digit like-for-like sales growth in the UK.

He added: “I am especially pleased at the continued success of our e- and m-commerce platforms showing how customers enjoy and appreciate the benefit of ordering online. We are investing further to drive this even harder.”

Domino’s opened its latest store at Scawsby in Doncaster earlier this week. A company spokesman said there were no immediate plans for further stores in Yorkshire.