Domino’s targets drive through

dominos-chefDomino’s Pizza plans to carve up a much bigger slice of the fast food market by revolutionising the drive through sector.

CEO, Don Meij, flagged the plan on Wednesday as he unveiled another stellar profit result for the global pizza chain.

While he was tight lipped on details, he said Domino’s would expand its successful online order services and target people using fast food drive through outlets.

“The big goliaths in fried chicken and burgers still use technology from 50 years ago with drive through, which is very inefficient and can be frustrating for customers waiting in a queue, dealing with a speakerbox,” he told AAP.

“What we’re launching between now and August is going to take that head on.”

Innovation has served Domino’s well, with the chain enjoying huge success with online pizza orders and other digital offerings which have driven sales and earnings.

The group enjoyed its strongest ever first half result in the six months to December 31, with net profit climbing 44 per cent to $29.1 million.

Meij is confident the growth will continue.

“The momentum that’s continued in this first six weeks has allowed us the confidence to give a more bullish (full year NPAT) guidance of 32.5 per cent – a guidance we’ve never set in our previous history,” he said.

Meij, who started out as a pizza delivery boy 28 years ago, said almost 60 per cent of the franchise’s total sales in Australia were online, with more than half of those from mobile devices.

He wants to expand that to 80 per cent in the next two and a half years, with plans to roll out a GPS pizza tracking system across Australia and New Zealand by July 1.

But bricks and mortar stores still play an important part in Domino’s growth story.

The company plans to open its 1500th store this year.

It has more than doubled its earnings in the space of two years, in part because of its expansion overseas in Japan and Europe.

Domino’s widened its geographic spread in 2013 by buying a majority stake in Domino’s Japan, which lifted its first half earnings by more than a quarter.

“In such a short window of time we’ve become the number two player, and we will be the number one pizza company in Japan by the end of this calendar year,” Meij said.

Domino’s shares gained $5.77, or 21.2 per cent, to a record high of $33.00.
Domino’s rolls out the dough

* Net profit of $29.1, up 44.2 per cent from $20.2 million in 2013/14

* Revenue of $343.6 million, up from $265.4 million

* Fully franked interim dividend of 24.6 cents per share, up from 17.7 cents

AAP

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