Domino’s is shutting dozens of its pizzerias in Australia and New Zealand in an effort to turn around its ailing business.
The antipodean arm of the global pizza chain has ‘streamlined’ by closing down 29 stores and stopped its Friday night $5 deals (£2.61) at the end of July in response to a 4.7 percent fall in sales. The move was welcomed by investors, as Domino’s shares on the Australian Securities Exchange jumped by 9 percent.
Experts down under say confirmation Domino’s is closing some locations ‘isn’t necessarily a bad thing’. Gary Mortimer told nine.com.au: “I often say that sometimes, in order to grow, you have to shrink. And this is simply a strategy of rightsizing.
“It’s better to run a smaller fleet of businesses, but they’re all profitable, and the share market has responded.”
The performance of Domino’s in Australia has been so poor US executives specifically called it out in their second-quarter earnings presentation, reports news.com.au.
The American parent company said the Aussie Domino’s Pizza Enterprises was to blame for a drop in comparable international sales.
“Comp sales declined by 0.1 per cent in the quarter as they continued to be impacted by Domino’s Pizza Enterprises,” Domino’s US chief financial officer Sandeep Reddy told investors.
“They remain focused on turning their business around. We continue to work closely with them on that.”
Investors in the UK will have watched news from Australia with keen interest, as the British division’s interim results are due on Tuesday morning (August 4). The last results, released in March, made for grim reading.
The company reported pre-tax profit fell by 15 percent in the 2025 financial year, which prompted interim CEO Nicola Frampton to tell investors the business was focused on strengthening our core business and driving disciplined execution across the organisation’.