Domino's UK system sales increase 9.8%

The increase is driven by new store openings and strong like-for-like performance of 6.1%.

The start of the X Factor Final on 2 December 2017 was the catalyst for the pizza giant's biggest day of sales for the year, demonstrating the growing trend for combining ordering in with family entertainment. Sales were up 25% over the average Saturday across the year.

UK online sales were up 14.5% year-on-year, representing 77% of system sales in Q4 as its investment in digital capability continues to deliver benefits for customers. The company had also deployed GPS to 244 stores by the year end.

Domino's opened 37 stores in the UK during Q4, taking the total for 2017 to a record 95 - surpassing the previous record set in 2016 and creating more than 3,300 jobs.

According to Domino's release, "Q4 performance has been ahead of our expectations and we have offset some of our margin investment with good volume growth. As a result we now expect full year underlying profit before tax to be slightly above the current range of market expectations. We expect capex for the 2017 year to be between £45 million and £50 million, below the previously guided range of £50 million to £60 million, mainly as a result of phasing in relation to the Warrington supply chain centre."