Domino’s sales snowed in after record profits
INVESTORS lost their appetite for Domino’s Pizza shares last night despite the company posting record full-year profits, after heavy snow hit UK sales at the start of 2013.
The group said 498 stores – almost two-thirds of its UK portfolio – were forced to close at some point in January because of the heavy snow and widespread bad weather.
As a result, sales at stores open for more than a year increased by just 1.6 per cent in the first seven weeks of the year compared with a 3.8 per cent last year, sending shares down 2.2 per cent last night.
Lance Batchelor shrugged off the slowdown in recent trading, pointing instead to Domino’s 10.8 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £46.7m in the year to 30 December.
“Despite a very challenging economic environment, our people and our franchisees have delivered another impressive set of results,” he said.
UK like-for-like sales rose five per cent, with 55.7 per cent of sales made online compared with 44.3 per cent last year. Orders from mobile devices such as smartphones doubled to nearly 20 per cent of online sales.