Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Sandeep Reddy: Hey, Andrew, it’s Sandeep. So, I think really important points that you bring up. I think from a value and food cost standpoint, as you know, we’ve actually had pretty significant volatility on the food basket over the last, call it, seven quarters. So, I think when you look at ’23 specifically, the food basket is basically up on a year-to-date basis about 1%. Last quarter was a deflationary quarter with the minus 2.4%. And obviously, when you look at the guidance that we provided of 3% to 5%, if the current level of food basket deflation that happened in Q2 continues, it’s mostly driven by cheese by the way, we should continue to see material upside on the food basket as we go through the balance of the year.

This makes a huge difference to profitability of our franchisees. And I think that helps repair some of the pressure that they took last year in their profitability. So, from a price opportunity standpoint, I think what we’ve been very clear about from the get-go is value, value to the consumer. So, if there is a way to actually pass value to the consumer through all of our different promotional platforms, we always look to actually maximize that opportunity. And that will be — continually be the way we actually approach this as well. It’s too early to actually talk about where we’re going to take this. But the framework through which we’ll analyze it is exactly the same as what we’ve always had on pricing.

Russell Weiner: Yes. And I would just add to Sandeep’s answer. Now that we’re in — we’re going to be in this incremental channel of aggregators, I think it’s important to really understand that we have a new unlock for value. So, the best value, the best prices, the best offers will be at dominos.com or our apps. The only way to get our great new loyalty program will be our apps or dominos.com. The only way to get Pinpoint Delivery. That’s going to be our value channel. But essentially what the aggregator platform opens up for us — maybe let me give you my point of view on it. I don’t think we need to get every customer on that platform. I think we need to get the right customers. So like I said, the value customers, we want them to come to dominos.com.

But this will be a premium price channel for us, and specifically the higher income customers that they’ve got are the ones that we’re going to be targeting here. And so, I think if anything, this gives us more levers to unlock value for customers, but also value from our franchisees as far as kind of a higher income, higher price marketplace.

Andrew Strelzik: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Chris Carril from RBC Capital Markets. Your question, please.

Chris Carril: Thanks. Good morning. So, on development, thanks for all the context around international, but I did want to follow up on the U.S. outlook. So, can you expand on just the pacing of U.S. development that you’re expecting here for the balance of the year? And then, beyond this year, how soon do you think that improving profitability and all the top-line drivers that you already spoke of can actually translate into more meaningful acceleration in U.S. store growth? Thanks.

Russell Weiner: Great question, Chris. I’ll take that one. I think internationally — I know your question was on the U.S., I’ll get to that in two seconds. But when you think about it on a global basis, every eight hours somewhere around the world, we’re opening up a Domino’s Pizza. And I just think the magnitude of that is something that our team takes a lot of pride on. As Sandeep said, we certainly expect the store growth to inflect towards the end of the year and especially into 2024. And let me give you some kind of perspective why, and what I ask is just put yourself in the seat of our franchisees or as an investor and say — and now I’m specifically talking about the U.S. per your question. It’s okay, if I’m going to open up a store, if I’m going to spend my money on a store, what do I want to ensure?

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