India has become the first market outside the US to have 2000 Domino’s Pizza stores. Jubilant FoodWorks is looking at doubling this count to 4,000 in the medium term. The food services company remains bullish on both dine-in and delivery segments and is also ramping up investments on back-end commissaries.
“We believe we are still in the early stages of tapping into the potential offered by a market like India. We plan to add about 180 stores in FY25. In terms of the future outlook, we will be looking to add around 200 stores annually, and increase the pace in the coming years as we see a pick-up in like-for-like growth,” said Sameer Khetarpal, CEO & MD of Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd told businessline.
The company has set a goal to double the count to 4,000 Domino’s stores in about 5-6 years.
Art D’Elia, EVP-International, Domino’s Pizza Inc said, “India is the first market outside of the US to have crossed the 2000 store-mark.. We believe India has a huge runway for growth. It is among the top five markets in terms of international sales (outside the US). It’s one of the few markets where Domino’s is leading not just in the pizza category, but is also the leading player in the QSR segment, which is a unique dynamic to India.”
Responding to a query on investment outlook, Khetarpal said, “We will be investing about Rs 250 crore per annum. We will continue to make investments in this range for the next few years. This is a massive investment outlay. We are also investing in back-end commissaries. We opened one in Bengaluru during the last financial year. We have now started work on the Mumbai commissary.``
The QSR segment has been seeing sluggishness in demand in the past few quarters. However, Domino’s India recorded positive like-for-like growth in Q4 due to a sharper focus on value proposition with measures such as free delivery.
“India continues to witness strong GDP growth. There could be near-term consumption and demand headwinds. But I think we will see things improving in the next couple of quarters. Good monsoons will also mean a recovery in rural demand for all consumer goods companies,” Khetarpal said.
Besides focusing on sharper value proposition offerings, the company has also been focusing on faster deliveries. Nearly two-thirds of the deliveries are now done in under 20 minutes.
On the commodity cost outlook, he said: “In India, inflation has come down from the decadal highs that were seen earlier. But we continue to be cautious and monitor the raw material costs. Recently, milk prices have gone up and cheese is the biggest cost for us in terms of ingredients. Seasonal rains or heat also caused a disruption in the vegetable supply chain.”