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Domino’s Pizza Group has announced the the appointment of Andrew Rennie as its new CEO.

Rennie has an extensive career in the Domino’s global system, having spent over two decades with Sydney-listed Domino’s Pizza Enterprises in roles including CEO of France and Belgium from 2006 to 2010, COO and then CEO of its Australia and New Zealand business from 2010 to 2013, and CEO of its European business from 2014 to 2020.

He is currently a non-executive director of AIM-listed Domino’s Pizza Poland, and chair of The Cheesecake Shop, a 238-store business in Australia and New Zealand.

He will join as a director of DPG on 1 August and will assume the role of CEO with effect from 7 August.

Elias Diaz Sese, who took over as interim CEO in October 2022, will step down from this role on Rennie’s appointment. He will remain a non-executive director of DPG, a role he has held since joining the board in 2019.

“I am delighted to welcome Andrew Rennie as our CEO,” said chairman Matt Shattock. ”Andrew understands the power and potential of the Domino’s brand as well as anyone in the business globally. He is an energetic and entrepreneurial leader with an incredible track record of delivering growth in Domino’s businesses around the world. All of us on the board believe that working with our brilliant colleagues and world-class franchisees, he is just the right person to take the business to the next level.

“I’d like to thank Elias for his extraordinary commitment over the past year and the positive impact he has made on the entire system in that time. His drive and passion for the business and its people have ensured that Domino’s has accelerated the implementation of our strategy and created a stronger platform upon which to drive our growth. I am very grateful he will remain on the board in a non-executive capacity.”

Rennie added: “I am delighted and honoured to be taking up the role of CEO of DPG. The Domino’s brand is in my blood and I’ve admired the strong progress the UK and Ireland business has made in recent years. Working with the team at DPG and the world-class franchisees here, I know we can take the business to new heights and I can’t wait to get started.”

Morning update

Poundland owner Pepco Group has reported strong group growth in the third quarter, with Poundland boosted by strengthening fmcg sales.

For the three months to 30 June 2023, revenues were up 12.5% on a constant current basis to €1.37bn, with Pepco up 15.3% and Poundland up 8.6%.

Group like-for-like revenues are up 8.2% in year-to-date, but slowed to growth of 2.6% in the latest quarter.

Pepco like-for-like revenues were up 9.6% so far in the year, but down 1.2% in Q3 reflecting a challenging trading environment in April and May, particularly in central Europe, and a stronger comparative period in the prior year.

However, the group said trading had recovered in recent weeks with a positive LFL performance in June and the start to Q4.

Conversely, Poundland’s like-for-like growth strengthen in the quarter, rising from year-to-date growth of 6.2% to 9% growth in the third quarter, primarily due to a strengthening fmcg performance.

Group new store openings were 325 in nine months to date (159 in Q3) and it remains on track to open 550 net new stores in the current financial year.

CEO Trevor Masters said: “The past quarter saw the group make further strategic progress, with 159 net new stores launched as we continued to execute on our profitable store opening programme.

“As we highlighted at our interim results in June, the macro-economic climate continues to be challenging, particularly in central Europe, due to elevated levels of inflation. In addition, Pepco’s Q3 growth reflected a period where the business benefited from trading upside in the prior year driven by the influx of people from the Ukraine war into its core markets.

“Poundland Group delivered a strong trading performance in Q3, driven by consumers prioritising spend on fmcg items. Both Pepco and Poundland Group are in positive LFL growth at the start of Q4.

“We remain committed to supporting our customers in this challenging environment by maintaining our market- leading pricing. We continue to seek improvements in the cost of doing business and leveraging our in-house direct sourcing arm, PGS, which is a key competitive advantage for the group. Our focus remains on building a bigger, better, cheaper and simpler business and we are well positioned to deliver future success as inflationary pressures ease.”

C&C Group has seen an “encouraging” performance in the early weeks of its new financial year, the group said in a statement ahead of its AGM today.

Issuing an updated for the period 1 March 2023 to 30 June 2023, it said net sales in its branded business were up 10% in the period.

Net sales revenue of core brands, principally Tennent’s and Bulmers, were up 9% in the same period, with each brand continuing to grow category share.

It also said it has made progress in resolving the Enterprise Resource Planning system implementation issues in the group’s GB distribution business outlined in its annual results in May.

Service levels have steadily improved, it said, and it continues to target further improvements to deliver outstanding service to customers.

Meanwhile, C&C has announced the appointment of Angela Bromfield as an independent non-executive director, effective from the conclusion of today’s AGM.

She is currently senior independent director of Harworth Group and is a non-executive director of Marshalls.

CEO Patrick McMahon said: “We are pleased with the start our branded business has made in FY2024. We are also reporting progress on the resolution of the ERP system implementation issues. However, the group’s performance is not at the level we planned, because of the ERP issues, and resolving them fully including the permanent restoration of OTIF metrics, remains our immediate objective and focus.”

Ralph Findlay, executive chair, added: “Despite the challenges relating to the ERP system implementation, the performance of our brands, the strength of the group’s balance sheet and our robust cash generating capability have enabled us to recommend a dividend to our shareholders.”

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 is up another 0.2% to 7,429.5pts.

Early risers include THG, up 4.8% to 99.6p, Naked Wines, up 3.9% to 77.9p and Domino’s Pizza Group, up 2.7% to 300.4p.

Fallers include British American Tobacco, down 1.8% to 2,544.5p, Kerry Group, down 1.4% to €89.14 and Fever-Tree Drinks, down 0.8% to 1,275p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 rebounded strongly yesterday from last week’s falls, rising 1.8% to 7,416.1pts.

Risers included Kerry Group, up 3.9% to €90.40, Just Eat Takeaway.com, up 3.6% to 1,274p, Ocado, up 3.5% to 608.4p, DS Smith, up 3% to 285.5p, Domino’s Pizza Group, up 2.9% to 292.6p, PZ Cussons, up 2.5% to 159.2p and Cranswick, up 2.4% to 3,312p.

Retailers Marks & Spencer and Tesco were up 2.3% to 198.2p and 2% to 250.4p respectively.

The few fallers included Naked Wines, down 5.3% to 75p and Hotel Chocolat, down 1.3% to 115p.

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