PIZZA SUPREMO DEFENDS SLICE
DOMINO’S Pizza chief executive Don Meij has declared popular food delivery services such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo are no match for his pizza chain’s branding, food and delivery.
Mr Meij told investors yesterday there was plenty of growth ahead for Domino’s in Australia as well as key markets in Japan and Europe.
He also discounted concerns the firm was reaching saturation point in Australia, or was bumping up against its potential in countries such as Germany and France.
Domino’s shares fell 35¢ to $47.66 yesterday.
It will provide an earnings update at its annual general meeting at the end of the month.
But yesterday’s investor presentation was an opportunity to “debunk a number of myths”, Mr Meij said.
There was a perception that Domino’s was close to maximum market penetration in Australia, he said.
But “we are so under-penetrated it is not funny”, Mr Meij said.
“The biggest competitor in Australia is six times bigger than we are.”
He said the nine countries that Brisbane-based Domino’s serviced had a population bigger than the US and a combined GDP bigger than China’s.
In that context “we are tiny”, he said of global growth opportunities.
Mr Meij said in Australia, Domino’s was beating delivery aggregators at their own game.
“What we highlighted at the half-year is that our total online sales grew 18 per cent and our total sales grew 12 per cent, showing that we are getting more online growth,” he said. “If aggregators were hurting us we would have less online growth.”
Mr Meij said the strength of the Domino’s brand was also helping it combat players such as Uber Eats.