The City went cool on Domino’s Pizza’s calorie-filled treats today despite record profits as sales succumbed to the blizzards which hit the UK last month.
The firm, which sells 61 million pizzas every year including the top-selling Pepperoni Passion, saw 498 of its stores closed at some point, representing nearly two thirds of its UK network.
The sponsor of Splash!, the celebrity diving programme which is fronted by 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Tom Daley saw its shares marked down by 7.5p to 530p.
“In terms of the first seven weeks there was a snow disruption for two of those weeks, which were very hard,” chief executive Lance Batchelor said.
Batchelor also blamed an earlier half-term holiday 12 months ago for much tougher trading comparisons for Domino’s in the early weeks of this year. Sales at stores open for more than a year were up just 1.6%, compared with 3.8% a year earlier.
Analysts warned that the tough start made the company’s prospects more difficult in a year which is already lacking several one-off boosts which made for a bumper 2012.
Pre-tax profits rose 10.8% to a new high of £46.7 million last year to 30 December.
“Trading in 2012 benefited from Euro 2012, the London Olympics and the wettest summer for 100 years,” Panmure Gordon analyst Simon French said.
“Without these tailwinds this year we expect like-for-like sales growth to be subdued at 3%, although this may prove a challenge given the start to the year.”
Domino’s is now generating 60% of its orders online, which is good news for the group as digital customers tend to place bigger orders.
The firm said one store had even removed the phone number from its menus without suffering any decline in sales.
