Posted By Wanda Rich
Posted on August 2, 2022
(Reuters) -Britain’s Domino’s Pizza Group Plc reported a 16% fall in first-half pretax profit on Tuesday due to rising costs and food inflation, and said it would increase its media spend in the second half to lure more customers.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two major wheat exporters, has fuelled supply concerns in the flour market and driven global wheat prices to historic levels.
Domino’s Pizza Group, a franchisee of U.S.-based Domino’s Pizza Inc, said its profitability was expected to be weighted to the second half as it maintained its annual outlook.
“We will be increasing our media spend in the second half compared to the first half, amplifying our value message to customers as we head into key events such as the men’s football World Cup,” Chief Executive Officer Dominic Paul said.
Paul, who led the company through the COVID-19 pandemic and played an integral role in reaching an agreement with the franchisees in the UK and Ireland over profit sharing, will leave in December to join as the head of Premier Inn-owner, Whitbread.
Domino’s Pizza, which operates stores in the UK and Ireland, reported lower system sales of 710.5 million pounds ($869.01 million) for the 26 weeks ended June 26, compared with 752.3 million pounds a year earlier. Underlying profit before tax came in at 50.9 million pounds.
U.S.-listed Domino’s Pizza Inc missed market estimates for quarterly profit last week on soaring costs and staffing crunch.
($1 = 0.8176 pounds)
(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
