Domino’s and Just Eat fattening up for ads battle

RIVAL takeaways firms Domino’s Pizza and Just Eat today set the scene for a September marketing showdown, after both companies unveiled strong first-half growth.

Domino’s will ramp up advertising at the start of the new football season thanks to a deal to place an ad before every game kicking off after 5pm, including in the Premier League and Champions League.

It hopes to follow up its Euro 2016 success — during the England-Wales match sales surged 66% — which, despite the Three Lions’ early exit, provided a “sound start” to its second half, boss David Wild said.

Just Eat will be changing its marketing and calling time on its love-it-or-hate-it TV ads that feature covers of songs including the Backstreet Boys’ Everybody.

Neither company has observed any short-term effect from Brexit, but both said weakening consumer confidence could lead to more people choosing to eat in.

“We’re a trade-up from scratch cooking and a trade down from eating out so we sit neatly in the middle,” Wild said.

Both also flagged the growing popularity of meat dishes. Domino’s said more chicken orders were accompanying pizzas, while Just Eat’s fastest growing category was steak. Domino’s like-for-like sales grew 10.9% in the six months to June 26 and operating profits rose 20.6% to £40.9 million.

Like-for-like orders were up 40% at Just Eat, while pre-tax profit more than doubled to £33.8 million. It upgraded full-year sales forecasts by £10 million to £368 million.