Domino’s Pizza and Majestic Wines on the Christmas menu
BRITONS are indulging in fine wine and takeaway pizzas, according to Majestic and Domino’s pizza who both reported strong sales growth yesterday.
Majestic’s chief executive Steve Lewis said demand for wines worth over £20 soared over the 10 weeks to 6 January, helping to boost sales at stores open more than a year by 2.8 per cent.
The rise was not enough to satisfy the market yesterday, with shares falling 3.2 per cent, but Steve Lewis put this down to last year’s significant share price growth.
“We had a slow start to December… Christmas came very late but that’s what we planned for,” Lewis said, adding that click and collect in the days before Christmas was particularly strong.
Meanwhile Domino’s said sales at its 670 UK stores open for more than a year rose 10.9 per cent in the 13 weeks to 29 December, ahead of analyst forecasts.
The company, whose shares suffered last year after losses across its German business, said sales were helped by growing online demand, a marketing push and the mid-week timing of the Christmas break, before which many people were at home having taken a day or two off work.
The group said full-year underlying sales rose seven per cent and that it expects profit to be in line with the market forecasts.