Pizza giant saw LFL sales in the UK growh 4% vs. 2015
Companies: Domino's Pizza Group plc
Domino's (LSE: DOM) put out a Q3 Trading Statement this morning with some positives and some negatives. LFL sales in its core UK market, which accounts for 93% of Group revenue, was up c.4% compared to Q3 2015. This compares with a growth of c.15% for the same period 12 months ago. This is a material slowdown in growth but for a FTSE 250 company that level of growth was always going to be a tough benchmark to compare against.
Year-to-date the disparity in QoQ growth rates is less pronounced with YTD UK growth of c.9% in 2016 compared to c.12% the previous year. Most importantly, the Board have reiterated it is "confident our forecast full-year results will be in line with market expectations".
In a positive sign for future growth, Domino's has announced an increase in the expected number of UK store openings for 2016:
"Given the strong new store performance of the business in the third quarter, we raise our UK openings expectation from 70 to up to 80 new outlets in 2016."
Management has opened 21 UK stores over Q3 and 51 so far this year. In his comment section, CEO David Wild said:
"The business continues to trade well with a strong sales uplift across the Group during the period. As highlighted at our interim results in July, we face tough comparatives in the second half of the year, but our continued investment in e-commerce, our international expansion and the launch of our new Italiano range taking us to new customers, will help to drive performance for the remainder of the year. Our new store programme provides a strong platform for future growth."
The company's price is marginally down in early trading today.
