Domino's Pizza UK to beat forecasts

By Matt Scuffham

LONDON (Reuters) - The country's biggest pizza delivery chain, Domino's Pizza UK & IRL Plc (DOM.L), said on Wednesday 2008 profits would be ahead of market expectations as recession-hit consumers staying in to save money switched to takeaways.

Shares in Domino's, which have outperformed the FTSE All Share Food Producers Index .FTASX3570 by over 30 percent during the past 12 months, were up 2.1 percent to 197 pence at 9:30 a.m. British time, having been up as much as 5.7 percent.

Domino's, which operates the UK and Ireland franchise of the global home delivery brand, has benefited from increasing numbers of Britons choosing to stay in at weekends to watch popular TV shows such as "X-Factor" and "Strictly Come Dancing".

"We advertised during the slots on X-Factor and that's definitely helped us," Chief Financial Officer Lee Ginsberg told Reuters.

The company, which also sponsors reality TV show "Britain's Got Talent", said like-for-like sales increased by 10 percent in the year to Dec 28. For the 13 weeks to Dec 28, comparable sales rose by 8.6 percent. Total sales increased by 18.4 percent to 350.8 million pounds.

Domino's, which is targeting a network of 1,000 stores in the UK and Ireland by 2017, said it exceeded its target of opening 50 stores a year in 2008, opening 52 new outlets to bring the total number to 553, and creating 1,500 jobs.

For 2009, Ginsberg said Domino's could again exceed its store opening target and may take advantage of properties becoming available as a result of closures in the struggling pubs industry.

"Given the strong demand from franchisees to grow and the opportunities from the pub fallouts and one or two other sectoral issues, we possibly could do a little more than that," he said.