Domino’s vows to up marketing as sales slow

Domino’s Pizza is promising to launch a “heavyweight brand campaign” later this year as sales growth slowed amid a “tough operating climate” in the first-half.

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The pizza delivery business says like for like sales from its UK outlets increased 3.4% in the 26 weeks to 26 June, compared with a 16.9% increase in the same period last year.

Pre-tax profit from its UK and Irish business increased 14.8% to £20.1m in the first-half, up from £17.5m a year earlier.

Chief executive officer Chris Moore described the like for like increase in sales as “a real achievement” against “tough comparatives” in 2010.

He promised a three-fold increase in spend to fund what he described as “innovative” marketing.

He adds: “The coming months provide fantastic opportunities for the company. While the first half of the year has been tough, we are delighted that we are still showing good growth in the UK and the latter half of the year comes with lower comparatives so we are confident we will see our like for like sales grow more strongly in the second half.

“Our marketing spend to the year end will be three times the amount for the second half of 2010 and, combined with some great new products and a heavyweight brand campaign in the coming months, we are very excited about the future.”

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