DP Poland plc (LON:DPP), the Domino’s Pizza franchise holder for Poland, expects 2016 to be a milestone year as it unveiled strong sales growth and an improvement in underlying earnings.
Last year marked a step-change in that corporate store EBITDA went to a positive £174,000 compared to a loss of £254,000 the previous year due to strong sales growth and reduced costs.
And the company has plans to roll out substantially more stores this year.
The contribution from the commissary, which supplies non-food and services to sub-franchisees, was also strong and a new facility was opened in September in Warsaw.
For the group as a whole, EBITDA loss was reduced to £1.64mln compared to a loss of £2.38mln in 2014.
Total retail sales, that includes from corporate and sub-franchised premises and not including three stores closed in 2014, rose 22% to £4.11mln (2014: £3.38mln).
Like-for-like sales were up 16% on the year, while 67% of total delivery sales were made online.
Peter Shaw, the group's chief executive, told investors: "The improvement in Group EBITDA in 2015 is a result of a strong combined performance from our corporate stores and our commissary.
"Corporate store EBITDA went strongly positive in 2015 and commissary sales to our sub-franchisees, plus sales royalties, grew significantly thanks to the strong sales performance of sub-franchised stores.
"With a presence in 5 cities we will be opening a significant number of new stores in the coming year, both in those cities and in new locations. I am delighted with the performance of our latest store openings in new cities."
He added: "2016 looks set to continue the strong story of 2015, with robust consumer demand, strong like-for-likes and the encouraging performance of new store openings in and beyond Warsaw. We anticipate finishing the year with a significantly larger store estate, led by corporate store openings piloting the launch of Domino's Pizza in new towns and cities."
There are currently 24 Domino's Pizza stores in five Polish cities, Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk and Szczecin, 16 of which are corporately managed and eight are sub-franchised.