Pizza delivery company Domino's Pizza UK & IRL Plc (DOM.L) Wednesday, in its trading update, said it expects to deliver profits for the full year fiscal 2009 comfortably ahead of current expectations.
For the 13 week period to December 27, 2009, the UK-based company's system sales rose 15.6% to GBP 112.4 million from GBP 97.25 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.
For the 52 weeks ended December 27, 2009, system sales grew by 16.0% to GBP 407.0 million from GBP 350.8 million in the same period last year. Like-for-like sales in 501 mature stores for the period increased 8.6% versus an 8.6% increase in 451 mature stores, bringing like-for-like sales growth for the year to 8.4% compared to a 10.0% growth in the corresponding period prior year.
E-commerce sales for the year were up 40.4%, compared to a 73.7% increase last year, to GBP 78.5 million from GBP 55.9 million in fiscal 2008. The company stated that e-commerce sales currently account for 27.8% of UK delivered sales versus 23.2% in the comparable period prior year.
The company noted that it had celebrated 10 years of e-commerce sales during the week of 26th October. In that week, the company further added that over a third of all orders were taken online and e-commerce sales in UK and Republic of Ireland surged 39.9% versus a 56.2% rise in corresponding period last year.
During the year, Domino's opened a record 55 new stores as compared with 52 openings in the previous year, including its 600th store on London's High Holborn in early December, creating around 1,500 new jobs taking the total number of employees in UK and Republic of Ireland to about 20 thousand.
The company noted that it has closed no stores during the year, bringing the total number of stores in the system at the year end to 608 from 553 in the year-ago period.
In addition to this, Domino's said it continues its policy of returning cash, not required in the business, to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends. During the 2009-year period, a total of GBP 18.0 million was returned with buyback of 2.6 million shares for GBP 7.6 million and dividends of GBP 10.4 million.
Commenting on the update, chief executive Chris Moore said, "In 2009, and in particular due to an exceptionally strong final quarter, we have outperformed our predicted like-for-like sales, improved our margins and opened more stores than anticipated."
"The success of Britain's Got Talent, the use of short-term tactical promotions and our continued focus on building our online sales have been major drivers during the year," added Moore.
DOM is currently trading on the London Stock Exchange at 314.30 pence per share up 4.30 pence or 1.39% on a volume of 26,628 shares. In the past 52-week period, the shares have been trading in a range of 184.50 pence to 330.70 pence.
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