UPDATE: Domino's Pizza 1H Sales, Profit Boosted By World Cup

12th Jul 2010 10:55

(Adds CFO comment, detail.) By Hannah Benjamin Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--Pizza delivery company Domino's Pizza UK & IRL PLC (DOM.LN) Monday said the soccer World Cup and its sponsorship of prime-time television show Britain's Got Talent helped drive a 31% increase in first-half pretax profit, with the launch of a new lunchtime menu set to continue boosting earnings in its second half. Sales from Domino's U.K. and Irish franchisees rose 21% in the six months to June 27 to GBP237 million from GBP196 million a year earlier, with sales from its 553 stores open more than a year rising 14%. Finance Director Lee Ginsberg said sales got a boost during England's World Cup games, particularly during the midweek afternoon match against Slovenia when the number of orders placed between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. tripled from normal levels. "Up to the start of the World Cup our like-for-likes were up 12.8%, so pretty strong anyway, but as we ended the half with like-for-like sales up 13.7% you can see the benefit from the World Cup," Ginsberg told Dow Jones Newswires. As well as the World Cup providing a fillip to sales, Domino's sponsorship of prime-time television show Britain's Got Talent also had viewers reaching for the phone to place orders. Overall revenue in the half rose to GBP91 million from GBP73.7 million a year earlier, boosted by a 61% surge in web-based sales. The online growth follows increased web activity from Domino's, as more of its stores developed websites while it also has more than 36,000 fans on its Facebook page. Online sales formed 33% of Domino's U.K. delivered sales in the half. Domino's first-half pretax profit soared to GBP17 million from GBP13 million a year earlier. The strong performance enabled the group to raise its interim dividend 29% to 4.5 pence a share from 3.5 pence a share, supported by a 29% increase in earnings per share to 7.62 pence from 5.93 pence a year earlier. While the firm expects comparable sales growth to slow to about 4% or 5% in the second half, it hopes the introduction of new lunchtime sandwiches will continue to bring in new revenue. "Our Two for Tuesdays promotion started in July last year. It has been very popular and means we now face some very tough comparatives," Ginsberg said. "Previously lunch hasn't been a great part of our trading but we've launched some new subs [sandwiches] and the stores that have trialled them are already making an extra GBP500 a week, without any proper launch or promotion," he said. The new lunchtime menu will be fully launched at the end of August. -By Hannah Benjamin, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9298; [email protected] Order free Annual Report for Domino's Pizza UK & IRL plc Visit http://djnweurope.ar.wilink.com/?ticker=GB00B1S49Q91 or call +44 (0)208 391 6028 (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 12, 2010 05:55 ET (09:55 GMT)