Domino's Pizza CEO David Wild to retire
European expansion efforts continue to provide challenges for the pizza chain.
Domino's Pizza UK chief executive David Wild has announced his intention to retire amid an ongoing row with franchisees and struggles in pushing into more European markets.
In its interim results for the first half-year, the pizza chain said that Wild has informed the board of said plans and that a process to recruit a successor is “progressing”. The pizza company previously said in March that it had been holding internal discussions over succession planning for Wild and chairman Stephen Hemsley.
Domino’s also said that talks with UK & Ireland franchisees continue, pledging to find “sustainable, win-win” solutions.
“The relationship with our UK and Ireland franchisees is very important to the long-term sustainable growth of the system. We are actively involved in detailed discussions and are giving these considerable focus and attention. Whilst dialogue is continuing, new store openings are being delayed and some of our working practices are being impacted. The situation is complex, and we expect resolution will take some time, likely into 2020,” Wild said in the update.
The group reported an operating profit of £51.6m in its UK and Ireland business, up 7.1% Its international category meanwhile had operating loss that grew from £1.8m last year to £6.4m.
“The performance of our International business is very challenging and trading visibility remains limited,” Wild said. “The weakest performance was in Norway, although we also saw increasing losses in Sweden and Switzerland. Iceland profitability was impacted by the weak macroeconomic backdrop.”
Pre-tax profit fell 26.9% during the period to £30.5m whilst revenue rose by 3.5% to £295.6m.
