Domino's Pizza is looking to open 80 new pizza outlets this year, with 11 already opened, plus a new supply centre in Warrington, with the creation of 3,200 jobs.
The franchise company, which sold nearly 89 million pizzas in 2016, saw underlying profit before tax rise by 17.1% to £85.7m. However, sales growth dipped from 11.7% to 7.5%.
Stores open for about two years rose 1.5% during the period, much lower than the 10.5% rise posted in the same period a year ago.
David Wild, chief executive, blamed a slowdown in like-for-like sales growth at the start of this year on the “disappointing” performance of its Winter Survival deal, which had been successful in the past few years.
The group operates almost 900 sites across the UK, with aims to reach 1,600, and owns the franchises in the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, as well as Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
The Republic of Ireland and Switzerland saw 12.3% and 9.4% growth in like-for-like sales respectively for the first nine weeks of the year.
The company also reported its acquisition of Dolly Dimple’s in Norway, the country’s third largest pizza company with 42 stores, for £4m, with partner Pizza Pizza Norway.
Its one-third stake in Joey’s Pizza, Germany's largest chain of pizza restaurants, contributed £700k to underlying group pre-tax profit while profits from its 49% stake in the Norway, Sweden and Iceland Domino’s business contributed £200k of profit across the seven months it has been owned by the company.