Domino’s Pizza said it plans to step up its expansion plans in Ireland after taking full control of the Irish business earlier this month.
It comes after the British-based group said like-for-like sales and total orders in February and March were positive, but only after reporting a slow start to the year.
In a trading update, the group said franchisees had opened 14 stores in the three months’ period, and predicts it will open more than 70 new outlets by the end of its current financial year.
Some of that effort will be focused in Ireland, chief executive Andrew Rennie said, after the British group bought out the shares it didn’t already own in the Irish operations.
“We acquired full control of Shorecal on April 10 which will unlock a significant opportunity for us in Ireland and we are now in an even stronger position to accelerate our growth, open new stores, and provide great service and great tasting products to our customers,” Mr Rennie said.
The latest quarter started off slower than the year-ago period after it reported a dip in sales and lower orders in the first quarter.
The company said like-for-like sales on a comparable basis were down 0.5%, with orders down 0.8% for the 13 weeks to the end of March.
Delivery orders were down 5% in Q1, although Domino’s expects the delivery market to return to growth in the full year.
Domino’s had curbed marketing spending in January to support the launch of a loyalty programme.
The group reiterated its underlying core profit forecast for the year within the mean range of £144.3m (€168.7m) to £151.8m (€177.4m).