Wed 2nd Oct 2013 - Domino's reports 4% UK lfl rise despite warm weather Domino's reports 4% UK lfl rise despite warm weather: Domino’s has reported a 4% increase in like-for-like sales in the UK in the 13-week period to 29 September despite what the company called “unusually warm weather”. System sales for the period were up by 10.4% to £140.9m (2012: £127.6m) with year-to-date system sales up by 11.1% to £437.9m (2012: £394.1m). Year to date like-for-like sales are up by 5.6% (2012: 5.1%). Digital sales accounted for almost two thirds (62.4%) of UK delivered sales (2012: 58.4%) in the period. Total online sales for the period rose by 19.8% to £72.3m (2012: £60.4m) and have reached £230.7m for the year to date (2012: £177.6m). Mobile sales more than doubled, up by 102.5%, and now account for 29.3% of total online sales. During the period, Domino's opened eight new stores in the UK with 23 new stores now open this year. The company said: “As well as the usual planning challenges, we introduced a new store design in early 2013, which pushed back the opening schedule towards the latter part of the year. We now anticipate opening around 50 stores this financial year. At the period end, Domino's had a total of 750 stores in the UK (2012: 700)." Domino's "continues to place marketing at the heart of the business," the company said, and during the period it launched a new above and below the line advertising campaign, "Greatness", which premiered on UK and Irish primetime TV. Domino's also undertook a major TV sponsorship deal in the UK, partnering with The X Factor App and "further cementing the brand's ownership of the Saturday night TV experience.” Sales in the Republic of Ireland rose by 3.7% to €11.5m in the period (2012: €11.1m) and year-to-date sales were up 4.5% to €36.1m (2012: €34.6m). Like-for-like sales have now seen nine periods of consecutive positive growth and, in the quarter, were up by 2.4%, despite the warm weather. The German market generated system sales in the period of €2.8m (2012: €1.0m) and saw a like-for-like sales rise of 9.4% (2012: 16.8%). Year-to- date, system sales were up more than fourfold (336.4%) to €7.4m (2012: €2.2m) and like-for-like sales were up 18.7% (2012: 20.9%). The franchisee stores continue to make good sales progress and at higher sales levels than the corporate stores. At the end of the period, Germany had 25 stores in total, 15 of which were corporate stores. No new stores were opened in the period (2012: zero), the year to date total therefore remaining at seven (2012: four). The decision has been taken to transition the majority of the German corporate stores across to franchisee management “as soon as practicable”, Domino's said. It said: "The business is making good progress with this process and we are confident that a good proportion of these stores will have transferred into franchisee hands by the year end. Switzerland continues to perform well, with system sales in the period of CHF3.0m (£2.05m), and like-for-like sales rising by 4.7% and 6.2% for the year to date." At the end of the period there were 10 stores (2012: 12) in the Swiss market. Chief executive Lance Batchelor said: "I am pleased to report another quarter of solid like-for-like sales growth across all four of our markets. The introduction of our excellent new store design meant a delay in first-half store openings, but the programme is now well under way. We are making good progress in transferring our German corporate stores across to franchisees, which will be a significant step forward in the evolution of this new growth market. We have a number of exciting initiatives in place across all our markets for the fourth quarter and we are confident of meeting City expectations for the full year."