Domino's axes Britain's Got Talent sponsorship
Domino's Pizza is dropping its successful, sales-driving sponsorship of Saturday night TV show Britain's Got Talent, claiming ITV was demanding an 'outrageous' sum for its renewal.
TV blockbuster: Domino's ends Britain's Got Talent sponsorship
The news emerged as Domino's revealed that sales growth slowed to 4.7% in the first seven weeks of its financial year.
That is down from 10.3% during the quarter ending on Boxing Day – a period when heavy snowfall and hit TV shows The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing boosted pizza home deliveries.
It also undershoots the 11% sales growth generated in the same period a year earlier.
Domino's reported a 27% jump in full-year pre-tax profit to £38m, and rewarded shareholders with a 31.6% hike in the total annual dividend to 10.2p per share.
But the firm's shares were marked down 20p to 503p in trading today.
Domino's finance director Lee Ginsberg told Reuters its sponsorship of Britain's Got Talent was set to end after it failed to agree terms with broadcaster ITV over extending the deal.
'It's fair to say we won't be sponsoring that going forward. ITV was looking for an outrageous amount to renew that,' Ginsberg said.
Domino's said the current sales performance came against a 'backdrop of exceptional comparatives from the same period in 2010 and the current difficult economic climate'.
It saw like-for-like sales rise 11.9% in the full year to December 26, with online orders up 63% to £128m. Internet sales growth has picked up further since the year end - to 72.9% in the most recent seven weeks.
E-commerce has been helped by the recent launch of iPhone apps and will be driven further by new applications for products such as the iPad.
The group, which operates a franchise-based model, now has 665 stores in the UK and Ireland. It opened a record 57 sites last year and wants to increase store numbers to at least 1,200.
The group unveiled plans to accelerate store openings - from 55 to 60 a year - as part of a new five year strategy until 2015.
And it said a recent deal with Moto motorway services would deliver benefits this year.
Hugh-Guy Lorriman, an analyst at broker Seymour Pierce, said Domino's had continued to produce 'stellar' results.
However, he added: 'After reporting double-digit like-for-likes in the first six weeks over the last two years, the market may feel less positive, especially after recent positive trading newsflow from casual dining operators.'
Domino's, which holds the master franchise for the UK and Ireland, first opened in the UK in 1985 and in Ireland in 1991.
The brand was founded in 1960 and now operates in more than 65 countries with 9,000 outlets across the world.
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