Dominos Pizza UK&IRL plc (symbol: DOM), the AIM listed pizza delivery company, held its Annual General Meeting at 11am today.
Stephen Hemsley, who was appointed as the companys Chief Executive on 1 January this year, addressed attendees at the meeting on current trading and the outlook for the year, saying:
System sales in the first 17 weeks of the year to 29th April 2001 were up 32.2% on the previous year (2000: 13.8%) to £29.4m (2000: £22.3m). Average weekly unit sales for all Dominos delivery stores in the first 17 weeks of the year were £7,996 (2000: £6,650). Like-for-like sales were up 22.5% (2000: 0.6%) in this same period. The companys continued investment in building its brand was bolstered by our first ever national, terrestrial TV advertising campaign and highly targeted advertising spots were selected throughout January and April in order to generate maximum sales uplift for stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Dominos has already made plans for further terrestrial TV advertising campaigns this year.
One factor that has enabled Dominos to take its marketing activity to this new level is the increasing size of the system and the growing number of stores that contribute a percentage of sales to our advertising fund. Hence as the system grows, the value of funds available to invest in marketing increases.
I am pleased to report that the rate of new store openings is progressing well in the year to date. Seven stores have opened as at 8 May 2001. We hope to open five more stores this month. By the time of the AGM on 17 April 2000, six stores had opened.
System sales generated via our leading e-commerce platforms, comprising Dominos website (www.dominos.co.uk) and its presence on every major UK interactive TV channel, have continued to grow and represent 4% of overall system sales. Our objective now is to maximise our first-mover advantage with more affinity deals and promotions involving our e-commerce partners. As anticipated, this activity has resulted in increased numbers of new customers being drawn to Dominos via these channels and a 16% higher average order value.
Finally, it is now 17 weeks since my appointment as Chief Executive. In that time I have remained focussed on a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the Dominos brand and store system as we enter a period of significant growth. I have developed systems for improved communication with our Franchisees and team members and have also strengthened our infrastructure to provide better support for our growing number of stores and franchise community.
Based on the very satisfactory progress made to date we look forward to reporting on further positive growth with our interim results.
ENDS
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