DP Poland has reported an “encouraging” like-for-like sales performance for the 26 weeks to 30 June 2013, said that it had put its first sub-franchisee in place and developed a new store format to “deliver significant economies in both capital and operational expenditure”.
The 15-strong company, which has the exclusive right to develop, operate and to sub-franchise Domino’s Pizza stores in Poland, saw like-for-like sales climb 72.8% during the period, with store EBITDA in like-for-like stores up 59.4%.
The loss before taxation and share based payments for the six months ended 30 June 2013 was £1.6m (2012: £1.5m). The revenue for this period was £1.5m (2012: £744.6k).
The group said that the loss in the first half of this year was impacted by the anticipated increased in marketing investment to secure long term brand building.
Store EBITDA for the six months ended 30 June 2013 was at minus £284.8k with 15 stores open. By comparison, for the six months ended 30 June 2012 Store EBITDA was at minus £557.8 with 13 stores open, at constant exchange rates.
Group EBITDA remained largely unchanged, -1.7% at constant exchange rates, which it said reflected the virtual doubling of investment in city wide brand building marketing in 2013, compared to 2012, and two further stores having been added to the estate since June 2012.
Its first sub-franchised store will open in Warsaw, in October and be operated by Jakub Stepien, who has been part of the team in Poland for the last three years, prior to which he was a franchised-store manager in both the UK and Ireland.
The company said that working closely with its franchisor Domino’s Pizza International and the local food and safety authority it has created a store format on a footprint that is 20-30% smaller than that of the typical Domino’s store.
Additionally, it has taken the opportunity to evolve the look and feel of the stores with a design that enhances customer perceptions of the quality of its brand offer, especially when compared to the local competition.
It said that the new, more efficient store format means that the rents for the five stores signed so far in 2013 are on average 35% lower than the average rent of the first 13 stores and it is seeing CAPEX savings of at least 15-20% of plan.
The group said that while its first 13 stores are taking longer on average to reach breakeven than initially planned, the growth in sales and gross margin achieved so far this year demonstrates “their potential to form a profitable base of corporate stores in Warsaw”.
Peter Shaw, chief executive of DP Poland said: “As well as a very encouraging like-for-like financial performance, the first half of the year has seen significant developments for the business. I am particularly delighted to welcome our first sub-franchisee who will be opening his first store in Warsaw this October. In addition to this we will be opening our first store outside of Warsaw in October, with more to follow this year, in Warsaw and beyond. We are still targeting 20 new store openings in 2013-14.
“With regard to store openings I am excited by the prospect of our new S2 Store format that we have developed, and are rolling out, to deliver significant economies in both capital and operational expenditure, facilitating the drive to store profitability.”
