Hamilton / AU. (dpe) Australia’s Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DPE), the Company behind Domino’s Deutschland, has successfully delivered on a USD 50 million savings program, allowing for reinvestment into the profitability of stores and franchise partners, at the same time as delivering earnings growth at expanded margins – the Company announced in its statement for the 12 months ended June 2024.
2023 the Company announced a wide-ranging strategic review to deliver cost savings, improved efficiencies and a foundation for growth, and now Domino’s confirmed the benefits were flowing through to better profitability for stores, improved returns for franchise partners, and more value for customers.
Average franchised store profitability in FY-2024 improved by +6.7 percent to USD 97,400, from growing same store sales, and a reduction in store operating costs.
Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said the results were an important inflection point. After working through the peaks of inflation and reducing their cost base, franchise partners would be able to leverage additional sales to deliver a step-change in profitability.
Don Meij: «The work we have done to deliver savings to the store network – to reduce costs in stores, and importantly in adding new, inspired products to the menu – has been crucial not only for our franchise partners, but also for customers as they increasingly choose Domino’s for the great value we offer for more meal occasions.»
Global sales were +4.6 percent higher for the full year at USD 4.19 billion, with online sales growing +7.5 percent to USD 3.37 billion, 80.4 percent of total sales. This delivered earnings +3.0 percent higher than the prior year at USD 207.7m underlying Ebit.
Domino’s 898 stores in Australia/New Zealand delivered underlying Ebit of USD 124.1 million (+10.4 percent), a record result for these markets, with Europe’s growing underlying Ebit +33.8 percent to USD 70.7m from 1,380 stores.
«Our performance in Australia/New Zealand and in Europe demonstrates our global strategy, with local nuances to reflect the preferences of customers, can grow market share and sales,» Meij said.
«Australia/New Zealand delivered the best Same Store Sales growth (+7.9 percent) in the past seven years, while Germany grew customers and total share of a growing pizza market through inspired products such as the Chicken Doner pizza.
«Today’s results show we have successfully reinvested into our network, growing profitability at a store level and also for our shareholders.»
The Asian business was affected by external factors, including geopolitical tensions affecting Malaysia.
Underlying Ebit was -28.7 percent to USD 42.9m (-25.0 percent to USD 45.1m excluding the effect of foreign exchange movements).
«There are promising signs in H2 24 from our extensive work in Japan on pricing and our menu, including growth in our delivered meals, and growth in the number of customers served.
«Importantly, we also grew franchise partner profitability by reaching more customers, including single meal occasions. Japan franchise profitability in the second half was more than double H2 23, through less discounting.
«We are seeing pleasing results from new pricing trials which are intended to unlock more customers. In a low-frequency market such as this, a slight increase in order counts will meaningfully change store profitability.
«In France, local management have a plan for applying our global strategy with a French approach, with building alignment with our franchise partners key to our success.
«The French market, though profitable, has underperformed in recent years and our intention is to grow the business by reaching more customers, including through aggregator platforms such as Uber.
«There are positive signs across our business, but more work to do in order to achieve our group franchise partner profitability target of USD 130,000 per store, which we believe will re-accelerate store expansion from existing franchise partners and store managers.»
H1-2025 Trading Update
FY-2025 sales are slightly below expectations, largely due to timing issues as some larger markets compound highly successful limited time promotional campaigns or one-off events.
Australia/New Zealand continues to perform positively, with higher SSS through higher ticket than the prior corresponding period, in which this market had a one-off customer lift through the Matildas’ performance in the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals.
European sales are affected by German performance in the prior corresponding year, in which Domino’s achieved record sales with their highly success Doner Kebab promotion.
Benelux SSS year-to-date is positive, while France still requires more traction with its turnaround program in this Half, including an increase in marketing spend planned for the 2nd Quarter.
In Asia, Japan sales are negative this Half, however the underlying performance of franchise stores remains stronger than at the same time last year, with more profitable orders through fewer discounts.
Malaysian sales continue to be affected by geopolitical issues, and are expected to be negative until the 2nd Quarter of FY-2025.
Singapore and Taiwan are achieving positive SSS year-to-date.
Meij said the short-term Same Store Sales under-performance did not reflect on the broader company strategy, which is delivering improvements at a store level for franchise partners.
«Our results released today show in the most recent Financial Year, and in the most recent Half, our global strategy is reaching more customers on more occasions across the Group – this is growing earnings for our franchise partners and, in turn, for our shareholders.
«We know the keys to earning an increased share of the enormous market for delivered food and quick service restaurants in all of our markets: serving high quality meals to our customers, with compelling value for all occasions, and by maximising our media spend – including reaching more customers through aggregators.
«At the same time, we can reduce costs for franchise partners further, through menu development, expanding our use of 3rd party delivery options to serve additional day-parts, and our proprietary technology to reduce in-store labour costs.
«Combined, we believe we have the right foundations in place for our franchise partners to get the maximum benefit from additional sales.»
Company Outlook FY-2025
Domino’s announced in July that store openings in FY-2025 would be flat to slightly positive, with gross store openings at ~3 percent of the network, offset by targeted store closures to improve profitability in France and Japan.
The Company advised shareholders Same Store Sales of 3-6 percent were achievable in this Financial Year, reliant on an improved performance in Japan and France versus FY-2024.
Domino’s management believes the long-term outlooks for its markets (7,100 stores, ~1.9X the current network) remain appropriate, given the additional upside possible in large markets such as Germany. However, as advised in July, a return to +7 to +9 percent store growth will not be achieved in FY-2025 or FY-2026 and would rely on continued improvements in franchise partner profitability.
«There is more work to be done, but we have made important steps, benefiting our customers, franchise partners and shareholders. We thank all three for their continued support.»
The Company will pay shareholders an interim dividend of 50.4 cents per share (unfranked). The dividend will be subject to the Company Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) and will be fully underwritten. The dividend will have a record date of 27 August, and a payment date of 25 September.
OTHER TOPICS FROM THIS SECTION FOR YOU:
- Tiger Brands: delivers robust FY-2024 performance
- Campbells: Reports First-Quarter Fiscal 2025 Results
- Pizza Hut: Pilots New Restaurant Design in Texas
- SSP Group: Announces Preliminary Results 2024
- Strauss Group: Reports Third Quarter 2024 Results
- Compass Group: 2024 another year of strong performance
- Middleby: Acquires Gorreri Food Processing Technology
- Nomad Foods: Reports Q3-2024 Financial Results
- TreeHouse Foods: Reports Q3-2024 Financial Results
- Aramark: Reports Earnings Results for Fiscal 2024
- Lesaffre Group: strengthens RDI with French start-up
- J+J Snack Foods: Reports Q4 Fiscal 2024 Results
- Hershey: Reports Third-Quarter 2024 Financial Results
- Reborn Coffee: Provides Q3-2024 Corporate Update
- PepsiCo: to acquire full ownership of two Strauss JVs
- Cargill: transforms Singapore Innovation Center
- Automation: Circus SE intends to acquire Campo Group
- Brenntag SE: reports volume and gross profit growth in Q3
- Ülker Bisküvi: announces 9M-2024 financial results
- SSP Group: reports Fourth Quarter Trading Update 2024