Domino’s growth cools amid consumer uncertainty
Domino’s Pizza reported a sharp slowdown in UK sales growth and trimmed its profit outlook after “evident uncertainty” among UK consumers and the summer heatwave.
The fast food company said like-for-like sales rose by 2.2% in its June-September quarter, down from 4.7% in the previous three-month period and 8.1% in the same quarter last year.
It revised the outlook for underlying pre-tax profits for 2018, saying they would be in the mid-range of the latest market expectations of £93m-£99.6m and little changed on the year before.
That is slightly lower than the range of £95.9m- £101.4m previously set out in August.
Chief executive David Wild said: “Our businesses continue to trade well, despite the evident uncertainty among UK consumers, and hot weather across Europe for much of the quarter.”
Domino’s added that it was planning to hire 5,000 additional workers to meet demand over the Christmas period.
The cooling UK sales picture did little to dampen the appetite for investors as the group said it was still on track to open 60 stores this year and set out plans to buy back shares worth £25m.