DOMINO’S HELPS THE UK THROUGH LOCKDOWN

1 January 2021

Lockdown news from No 10 drove spikes in sales

Halloween surges ahead as one of the biggest treat nights

Customers shift from end of week to mid-week dining

Domino’s, the nation’s best loved pizza, helped boost morale through last year’s lockdowns, as Government COVID-19 announcements and a strikingly different festive period drove the greatest ever spikes in pizza sales and brought in five million new customers.

The first full week of national lockdown in March was Domino’s busiest week of 2020 for delivery in the UK. As supermarket shelves emptied and evening activities were limited, the nation leaned on Domino’s for comfort, ordering over two million pizzas.

March also marked the beginning of Domino’s recognition of key workers across the UK and Ireland with the first of its £4 million pizza giveaways, plus the launch of the Partners Foundation, which provides grants to Domino’s colleagues in times of hardship.

As Boris Johnson concluded his address to the nation announcing England’s second lockdown on 31 October 2020, Domino’s deliveries made up for the lack of doorstep trick or treaters. People turned to pizza to take the edge off the lockdown news, making Halloween Domino’s busiest day of the year for sales – selling 13 pizzas every second and processing 382 orders online per minute.

As 2020 came to an end, pizza fans turned to Domino’s to celebrate Christmas a little differently as they prepared for a brighter 2021. Domino’s had its biggest ever Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, selling 12 and 14 pizzas every second respectively. This helped drive a record sales week in the final few days of the year*.

Dominic Paul, CEO, Domino’s Pizza Group, said: “It was a privilege to play our small part in keeping spirits up and helping the nation stay safe at home during the pandemic. I’m truly grateful to our hardworking teams across the country and our franchisees for making it possible. On behalf of Domino’s, I also want to reiterate our gratitude to all the frontline workers who worked tirelessly to help keep the UK and Republic of Ireland safe. We hope our pizza giveaways went some way towards demonstrating our heartfelt appreciation.”

The pandemic also triggered a change in ordering patterns with many households enjoying an early evening meal together, but fewer late-night orders. Mid-week orders rose, as opposed to the traditional Friday 7pm rush and variety was the spice of lockdown life with the successful launch of Domino’s new Vegan range and Beef Doner pizza, its most popular new product launch ever.

Despite the lockdown ups and downs, today’s annual results show Domino’s has continued to perform well through 2020, with system sales up 11.4%. To view the results, please visit www.investors.dominos.co.uk/media/news/preliminary-results-52-weeks-ended-27-december-2020