Domino’s hires new UK chief executive: Domino’s Pizza Group has announced the appointment of Dominic Paul as chief executive (designate) in the UK with effect from 6 April 2020. Dominic will join the board as chief executive officer on 1 May 2020. The company stated: “Dominic is a highly experienced leader in the consumer sector, and most recently served as Chief Executive Officer and managing director of Costa Coffee. He led the Costa brand from 2016 to 2019, overseeing its growth ahead of the £3.9bn sale of the business by Whitbread to Coca-Cola last year. Dominic strengthened Costa’s position in the UK where it is a clear market leader, grew new segments such as Drive Thru and Costa Express, accelerated its digital development and restructured and grew the international business. Prior to this, Dominic was senior vice president of international with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line where he led the business through a period of strong growth. His extensive experience in the travel and leisure industry also includes senior roles at Easyjet, British Midland and British Airways. Dominic has highly relevant experience, which has included building high-performance teams who can collaborate with franchisees to drive high levels of customer satisfaction and achieve outstanding results for shareholders. Dominic will replace David Wild who has previously announced his intention to retire from the business. David will retire from the board on 1 May 2020.” Matt Shattock, chairman, said: “We are delighted to have attracted a chief executive officer of Dominic’s calibre, and I’m very much looking forward to working with him. He is a high energy leader with great experience of driving powerful consumer brands to new heights, and of partnering with franchisees. These are the skills which will be vital as we seek to take this business to the next level. I’d also like to thank David for his contribution to Domino’s over the last seven years and for his commitment to the business during this period of leadership transition. We wish him well for the future.” Dominic Paul said: “I am hugely excited to be joining Domino’s. It is a much-loved brand with great people and some of the best franchisees in the world, and there is a strong foundation to build on. I am confident that we can take the business to the next stage of its development, and build a long term and profitable future for our franchisees, colleagues, customers and shareholders.”

Domino’s reports like-for-likes up 1% in the US: Domino’s US has reported like-for-like sales are up 1% between 24 February and 22 March in the US, compared to a rise of 0.3% in the period between 27 January and 23 February. It reported 14 international markets are closed and 23 international markets have partial closures. International like-for-like sales are down 0.2% in the period between 24 February and 22 March. Domino’s US chief executive Ritch Allison said: “We don’t typically provide a business update outside our normal quarterly cadence, but we recognize that these are not normal times. We pride ourselves on being transparent with our stakeholders and we believe this information will be instructive, given the unprecedented impact of covid-19 on our business and the restaurant industry. As we continue to navigate this public health crisis, we have decided to provide you with this preliminary estimate of retail sales, same store sales, and store growth results from the first quarter of 2020. We have also decided to share some period-level detail to provide a view into how our results trended over the quarter. While we hope this is a helpful snapshot of the last 12 weeks, the situation remains fluid and we continue to assess the impact covid-19 has had and will have on our business. As we manage through this challenge across the globe, I am proud to say that we are prioritizing the health and well-being of our team members, franchisees, and the communities we serve. We take our responsibility seriously for continuing to provide convenient and reliable delivery and carryout experiences to the communities where those services have been deemed essential during this extraordinary time. All but a handful of our US stores have remained open and are serving customers. All US supply chain centers are also open and fully operational. January US sales were very similar to the fourth quarter of 2019. Beginning in February and ramping up into March, US sales were impacted by many factors, which have varied in magnitude across the cities and towns we serve. Shelter in place directives, pantry loading, university and school closures, event cancellations, and the lack of live televised sports have all impacted our business in ways that we cannot yet fully quantify. Across our international business, the unique circumstances in a number of markets have necessitated the temporary closing of stores. We continue to stay in contact with the master franchise companies operating these affected stores and look forward to them reopening as soon as possible. China was our first market to be significantly impacted by covid-19, and we were pleased to see our sales there recover and accelerate in the last few weeks of the first quarter. Across the globe, Domino’s will remain focused on execution, service and value as we continue to navigate through the headwinds created by covid-19. We are carefully managing our balance sheet, cash flow and all areas of the business to ensure we are doing what we believe will help us best manage through the near-term and, as always, position ourselves for long-term success. We are also committed to supporting our teams and the communities we serve. In our corporate stores and supply chain centers, we have implemented enhanced sick pay policies and we will provide additional compensation for our hourly team members during this crisis. Our corporate stores and franchisees are also hiring and are looking to add more than 10,000 employees across the US. Here in the US and around the world, we and our franchisees are donating millions of pizzas to feed the need in our communities. I remain highly confident in our strategy and optimistic about the opportunity and potential of our business. Our solid, resilient business model and strong financial position will continue to serve us well in these challenging times. I thank our franchisees across the globe for their continued fight and passion in supporting their store team members and customers during this difficult period. I firmly believe that there is no system, no team and no brand better equipped to face today’s challenges than Domino’s.”