Britain's biggest pizza delivery firm Domino's Pizza UK & IRL reported a slowing rate of sales growth at the start of 2011 and said it would ditch its successful sponsorship of television show Britain's Got Talent.
The company, which operates the British and Irish franchises of the global delivery brand, said sales growth at shops open more than a year slowed to 4.7% in the first seven weeks of 2011 compared with an 11.9% increase throughout 2010.
Analysts said that Domino's sales should have been inflated by extended opening hours and suggested it would be difficult for the company to maintain its rate of growth. They added that comparatives will only get harder over the rest of the first half of the year as the football World Cup had a very positive impact on the second quarter last year.
But Domino's finance director Lee Ginsberg said the company was happy with the performance. He said he was comfortable with analysts expectations of 3-5% sales growth over the full year at shops which have open for more than a year.
Domino's, which runs over 650 stores in Britain and Ireland on a franchise basis, reported a 27% rise in 2010 pre-tax profit to £38m sterling, benefiting from a surge in orders for its pizzas online.
The company, which delivered pizzas to 4 million households in Britain and Ireland last year, has benefited through the economic downturn from customers staying in and ordering takeaways rather than going out to eat in restaurants.
Domino's said overall sales rose by 19% to £485.3m. Online sales, which now account for 36% of overall sales, were up 63% to £128m. The company said it is targeting producing two-thirds of its sales via the internet in five years time.
