Chris Moore, former chief executive officer of Domino’s Pizza PLC (LON:DOM), obviously has a penchant for pizza.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say a penchant for pizza delivery companies – although we hear he is partial to a Pepperoni Passion – as after stepping down from Domino’s Pizza at the end of 2011, he took up a non-executive directorship at DP Poland Plc (LON:DPP), the company that controls the fabulously successful Domino’s Pizza brand in Poland.
Upon joining DPP in December 2012 he acquired 333,333 DP Poland shares at 15p a slice, since when he has steadily increased his piece of the pizza pie.
On 13 December 2014 he bought 250,000 shares at 19.2p each, and then almost exactly a year later he bought another 440,000 shares at 22.5p each.
This year has seen the marketing maven increase the rate at which he has added extra toppings, with six separate purchases in June alone.
On 9 June he bought 500,000 shares at 31.4p each; the next day he bought 250,000 at 32.7p; on 13 June he was back in again to buy 500,000 shares at 31.4p; the next day he had his broker deliver another 100,000 shares at 36.5p each and then on 28 June he scarfed down another half a million shares, also at 36.5p each, lifting his stake to 2.8% of the issued share capital of the company.
The former boss of the UK & Ireland operations of Domino’s Pizza – he bought the master franchise from the US parent in 1993 – obviously knows a thing or two about how a pizza company should be run, and it appears he likes the way things are developing at DP Poland.
The May trading update, covering the first quarter of the company’s financial year, was a strong one with the company notching up its fourteenth consecutive quarter of double digit percentage like-for-like (LFL) sales growth.
LFL system sales rose by 23% in the three months to March from 26 stores open in six Polish cities by mid-April. Should you be planning to visit Poland before the UK pulls up the drawbridge, those cities are Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, Gdansk, Szczecin and Zielona Gora.
Chief executive Peter Shaw said the sales performance of stores recently opened outside of Warsaw had been particularly encouraging.
In its May trading update, the company revealed it was about to open three more stores outside of Warsaw. Shaw was being coy about their exact locations, for competitive reasons, but they will be in cities where Domino’s already had an established presence.
In all probability, the company will reveal more about these stores in its half-year trading update, which is usually released in July, and provide more detail on the roll-out of new stores.
As in the UK, adroit marketing has played a big part in driving such impressive sales growth.
“Digital media are very important to us in terms of driving sales,” Shaw told Proactive Investors.
“As we build the customer base in each store we are seeing growing repeat purchases, so our customers are becoming more loyal,” he added.
Shares have practically doubled so far this year and it is fairly safe to say that this is one business that will not be adversely affected by the Brexit decision.
“The consumer economy is strong in Poland. People seem to be excited by the Domino’s offer,” Shaw asserted.