Britain's biggest pizza takeaway chain, Domino's Pizza UK & IRL, said it is confident of delivering 2008 profits ahead of market expectations. Analysts' forecasts for full-year pretax profit range between £22.3m and £23.2m sterling.
The chain has 49 stores in Ireland.
Domino's, which operates the UK and Ireland franchise of the global home delivery brand, said like-for-like sales increased by 10% in the year to December 28. For the 13 weeks to December 28, comparable sales rose by 8.6%.
Domino's, which is targeting a network of 1,000 stores in the UK and Ireland, 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. Total sales increased by 18.4% to £350.8m.
Shares in Domino's Pizza have outperformed the FTSE All Share Food Producers Index by over 30% during the past 12 months, reflecting hopes the company will benefit from customers looking to save money by ordering in takeaways instead of eating out.
