November 2025. I'm Nathan Scholz, the Chief Communication and Investor Relations Officer, joined today by Jack Cowin, our Executive Chair, and George Saoud, who is our Group Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. I will hand over shortly to our Executive Chairman to prepare to provide some of his opening remarks. When we get to the Q&A session at the end, if you can raise your hand, I will, as usual, hand around to the different analysts to ask a question and a follow-up, and then I'll ask to hand on to the next question and answer before coming back. With that, I will hand over to Jack Cowin. Jack, for your opening remarks.
Good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to give you an overview on the company's first half results and progress that the company is making as part of a significant reset. Before I start, just a headline: the company is on track to what we have endeavored to do in getting out of the discount business and making more money for our franchisee community, which is a basic plank of the success going forward for this business. To move into kind of my commentary, the most important step in structuring the company for the future is the new management that has been established over the past few months. World-class management team, second to none in the food service industry. Incoming Group CEO, Andrew Gregory, most recently Executive Vice President of McDonald's.
A senior executive with McDonald's for 30 years, including as CEO, as ANZ, Japan experience, responsibility for + 40,000 franchise units around the world. He'll join us later this year after completing his obligations to McDonald's. George Saoud, CFO, will retain this function, plus from January 2026, takes on the role of Chief Operating Officer. George joined DPE in July 2025. We have new country heads. Mr. Merrill Pereyra in Australia, started in January 26th. Experienced long-term employee in McDonald's, Pizza Hut in Asia. Mr. Abhishek Jain, CEO of New Zealand, now established as a separate market. Former COO of Australia for Pizza Hut, long-term Pizza Hut executive. Mr. Phil Reed, CEO of France, started July 25. He was previously executive with McDonald's, Burger King as a franchisee, and CEO of Pizza Hut Australia. Mr.
Dieter Haberl, CEO, Japan, long-term resident of Japan in the retail business. Mr. Jai Rastogi, Chief Procurement Officer, deep international experience with major competitors in Australia and Asia. Mr. John Bou-Antoun , Chief Technology Officer, joined us in January 2026, previously Senior Technical Advisor at Deloitte. Today, we also announced that Drew O'Malley, ex-CEO of Collins Foods, executive positions with AmRest in Europe, has been announced as a new Director of the company. This new management team is tasked with building the business with the goal of long-term success for a business in 12 markets, 3,500 outlets, AUD 4 billion in network sales. This group will provide the platform growth and profitability going forward. We're very proud of being able to attract these people to our company with the experience and background that they all have in this industry. Corporate DPE earnings.
At our AGM in November, we undertook to provide earnings to match earnings consensus growth forecast for the FY26 financial year. I'm pleased to advise that we're on target to do so with the first half EBIT of AUD 101.5 million, an increase of 1% versus the PCP. NPAT of AUD 60.1 million for the period, +2.2% higher than the PCP, and free cash flow of AUD 70.6 million. We anticipate that the 2026 full year results will be in line with guidance provided at the AGM and consistent with market expectations at that time. Sales year to date, including the first trading week of the second half, are -3.6% versus the previous year.
We have embarked on a test in WA, which changed the business from heavy discounts to everyday pricing. The result have been a loss of customers who were heavy users, driven by pricing unattractive to franchisee P&L. The loss of price-driven customers led to a decrease in sales, but an increase in franchisee profitability, which was our original objective and which we forecast would happen, and now we are seeing the results of that. The trial confirmed the benefits to franchisee profitability. We are now refining promotional activity to rebuild traffic on profitable terms. The increase in franchisee profitability has led to a national reduction in promotional discounts in an effort to enhance franchisee profits, but has led to a negative sales result.
We believe that a return to profitable promotions will assist in regaining the price-driven customers over the next six months to a year. Franchisee profitability on a rolling twelve-month EBITDA basis has grown from AUD 98.6 in FY25 to AUD 103,000 in FY26, the highest level in three years. Very important. We're hopeful that these numbers will continue to grow as returns improve and lead to an increase in investment in new units and sales. Bottom line on the financials is the dropping of broad discounting will increase franchisee profits and return to sensible promotional activity, which will lead to a return of price-driven customers, sales, enhancing DPE profits. Progress continues with the AUD 100 million objective in our sights of Cost Out, with some exciting new contractual arrangements enhancing global profitability.
There are cost pressures in various markets with regard to labor laws, which the cost-out program continues to cover, as well as enhancing profits. Company debt. Total debt reduction from June to December of AUD 196.1 million. Net leverage ratio reduced from 2.21 x, down from 2.57x, with average debt tenure of 4.5 years. Interim dividend increased to AUD 0.25 per share, + 16.3% higher than the FY25 final dividend. I'll now hand over to George to walk you through the detail behind the reset in the financial results. George?
Thank you, Jack. Good morning. I'm on slide three. As Jack outlined, this half was about resetting the business and rebuilding the foundations in pricing, store economics, and capital discipline. We've made deliberate decisions to strengthen franchisee returns, simplify the system, and improve financial discipline. We operate a leading global QSR platform. We made a deliberate choice: strengthen unit economics first, then rebuild volume on a better base. Turning to slide 4, delivering on our plan. As Jack said, the reset is about getting the foundations right in pricing, our cost base, leadership, and capital allocation. We're moving from broad-based discounting to targeted economics-led promotions. In the WA trial, we saw ticket and margin per order improve. Volumes moderated as expected. We refined how we deploy promotions.
Globally, franchise profitability increased 4.5% to AUD 103,000 per store, the highest level in 3 years, with Australia delivering even higher growth. Most of our franchise partners operate more than 2 stores, so when average store EBITDA lifts, that's meaningful income improvement across their portfolios. If franchise partners are profitable, the system is strong. We've actioned AUD 55 million of cost savings. A large portion of that flows to franchisees through lower food and network costs. Importantly, we are funding this reset from within. We are strengthening the balance sheet while strengthening store economics. Just quickly on slide 5, the CEO appointment. The board appointed an experienced global QSR executive, Andrew Gregory, after a thorough global search. Andrew understands franchise systems and disciplined growth. There'll be a proper transition when he joins us, which is no later than early August.
The principles do not change. The work underway continues. Slide 6, guiding principles. This slide shouldn't surprise you. We're taking a disciplined approach with these principles, guiding us as we move through this reset, so you can track how we deliver against our plan. Turning to slide 8 and expanding on Jack's earlier commentary. Overall, NPAT was $60.1 million, representing a 2.2% growth over the prior corresponding period. The key components making up the result are as follows: Network sales of $2.04 billion represent a decline in same-store sales growth of 2.5%. The decline reflects the deliberate reduction in deep discounting, largely in ANZ and Japan, prioritizing franchisee profitability. There is also the effect from reducing the number of stores from the prior corresponding period on network sales.
Overall, sales across each region are balanced, with strong sales in Europe offsetting the softer performance in ANZ due to the reduction in discounting. The group delivered an EBIT of AUD 101.5 million, which represents a 1% increase over PCP, largely due to the performance in Europe and Malaysia, offsetting the reduced warehouse margin and volumes in ANZ. A higher effective tax rate reflects the greater share of earnings in higher tax jurisdictions. From a cash flow position, the business generated AUD 70.6 million in free cash flow, which is AUD 40.6 million above last year. Focused and disciplined capital management has resulted in a reduction in spend on technology and digital investments and new store openings. This is driving the improved cash flows.
There was a net reduction of AUD 114.2 million, and total debt reduction of AUD 196.1 million during the period, which is driven by the strong cash flows. An interim dividend of AUD 0.25 per share to be unfranked and not underwritten. The dividend reflects our support for maintaining the balance between supporting de-leveraging and reinvestment. The dividend reinvestment plan remains in place. Turning to slide 9 on the geographic summary. Overall revenue across each market region is similar, with growth in Europe, with the same-store sales of 1.3%, offsetting the decline in ANZ of -4.7%. As mentioned previously, the decline in ANZ reflects the lower order count in the period as the business reduced discounting promotions to improve margin per order.
In ANZ, the cost savings were passed on to franchise partners ahead of those savings being fully realized. The strong results in Germany and Benelux and Malaysia offset the softer trading in ANZ, Japan, and France. Whilst group EBIT is up 1% to AUD 101.5 million, the decline in orders impacted the ANZ result by AUD 6.3 million. This decline was offset by growth in Europe of AUD 7.6 million and growth in Asia of AUD 1.4 million, notwithstanding the sales decline in Asia. Overhead and cost control, as well as improved margins on orders, assisted the improvements in Asia as we hold many corporate stores in this region. The increase in global overheads reflects higher amounts expensed in the current period, the technology and data, versus the prior corresponding period.
Gross technology costs are significantly down, as can be seen in our cash flow analysis, and has been a major part of our cost-out program. Turning to slide 10, cash flows. The reset is being funded from within through disciplined cash generation. Free cash flows of AUD 70.6 million was generated in half one twenty-six versus AUD 30 million in the prior corresponding period, representing a AUD 40.6 million improvement. This improvement largely relates to a AUD 30 million cash reduction in investing activities through focused and disciplined capital management. We'll be explaining this further on the next slide. Operating cash flow improved by circa AUD 5.8 million, and net leasing payments improved by AUD 4.8 million as a result of store closures and the associated reduction in the number of stores.
Operating cash flows of AUD 101.2 million includes the benefits of reduced tax paid during the period, offset by higher cash payments for non-recurring costs versus PCP and some negative working capital improvements in Europe. Slide 11, investing activities. Overall, there is a AUD 30 million reduction in net CapEx from investing activities in this half, 2026, versus half, 2025 last year. The business has reduced investments in digital by AUD 14 million over the prior corresponding period, reduced spend on operational systems and back-of-house capabilities by AUD 3.5 million, and reduced spend on new store openings and acquisitions by AUD 4.6 million. Cash inflows of AUD 8.4 million came from store proceeds and from the sale and loan repayments.
The introduction of tighter governance by investment committee approvals ensures that all expenditure has the appropriate returns back to the business and aligns with our priorities. Looking at our debt and capital management on Slide 12. Management has successfully completed debt refinancing of AUD 1.05 billion in new facilities, with better pricing and staggered maturity terms, with a weighted average tenure of 4.5 years. Total debt is reduced by AUD 196.1 million, and net debt has reduced by AUD 114.2 million, with AUD 64.4 million related to cash repayments. There is AUD 49.8 million relating to positive FX movements during the period.
Our net leverage position represents 2.21 x at December 2025, approaching our target position of just under or around 2x, with an interest coverage ratio strong at 19.8 x. As previously mentioned, an interim dividend of AUD 0.25 per share will be paid. Slide 14, an update on cost savings and our cost simplification program. Our cost reduction program was aimed at driving a simpler business model across technology, group support, and also investing back into operations to drive a sharper focus and execution for franchisees and customers. Our cost out program continues to track to AUD 60 million to AUD 70 million of annualized cost savings, with AUD 55 million of cost savings action to date. Majority of this is related to reductions in headcount, in particular in IT, procurement and logistics savings, and other marketing and G&A expenses.
Of the AUD 60 million to 70 million in savings, AUD 20 million to AUD 30 million will be delivered as benefits in FY26, and as previously mentioned, circa 33% of those benefits will flow into DPE. We have started phase II of the cost-out and simplification program to target indirect services in G&A IT, as well as further opportunities in food and packaging. Further analysis will be presented in the full year results. We expect benefits in the range of AUD 15 million to 25 million annually from this initiative. Turning to page 15, franchisee economics. This slide is at the heart of our reset. We've taken deliberate actions on cost-out, on pricing and discounting, and on supply chain and IT, so that we can generate higher returns and reinvest in our franchise network, and it's having a positive result.
Group average franchisee store EBITDA has improved 4.5% to AUD 103,000 on an average 12-month rolling basis, the highest in three years. Let's put that in perspective. The earnings increase in franchisee store EBITDA is measured over 12 months, but the program that delivered it was largely in the past six months. Importantly, we're seeing this trend continue into this half, with ANZ franchise profitability up by more than 10% higher in January this year versus the prior year. The improvement in franchise profitability has been across all markets, demonstrating our reset efforts are not regionally based, but have global benefits. At the core of our changes is ensuring we continue to deliver value for everyday customers every day. On slide 16, our value equation.
Earlier, I showed the principles we're applying for this reset. This slide shows those principles in action. Historically, we leaned heavily on discounting to drive volume. That lifted transactions but diluted value. We're shifting to a more margin-accretive operating model. That is part of the reset. We're rebuilding pricing discipline so that growth is more profitable, volume is spread throughout the week, which means franchisees can manage their labor and other costs more effectively and can focus on delivering a better product to our customers. Pricing and the value equation isn't just about one number, it means simpler menus, clearer bundles, and consistent execution. We want to remove customer friction points. The objective is simple: improve customer value while strengthening unit economics. We are already seeing this in evidence. Our pricing is lifting basket size. Improved consistency allows our franchisees to improve margins and customer frequency.
Value-led bundles are replacing blanket broad-based discounting. CRM is becoming more targeted. In ANZ and the WA trial, it's helped us learn some of these concepts. We've accepted some short-term volume moderation to improve ticket and grow store profitability. This is not about charging more, it's about pricing transparency, offering great value through consistently executing and growing sustainably. Slide 17, smart offers, putting this into practice. We want smart offers that give great value for customers and profitable returns for our franchise partners. Historically, we used broad blanket discounting to drive volume. That lifted transactions. Compressed margins and diluted store economics. We've changed that. Promotions now have to meet store-level economic thresholds. They focus on margin and on carryout versus delivery. Increasingly, they are targeted through our own channels. The Saturday promotion, as an example, in Australia is a good illustration.
We moved from blanket discounting, including delivery, to now selectively carryout or pickup offers. That protects contribution while still driving traffic. The principle is simple: unit economics first, then rebuild volume. Early signs are encouraging. Voucher dependency has reduced materially by more than half. Store profitability is improving, and we're refining as we go. It's disciplined, smarter discounting. I will now hand back to Jack to talk about the trading update.
Thanks, George. Turning to the trading update, you can see group same-store sales for the first five weeks of the second half is negative. I'd like to reiterate comments that I made at our AGM in November. I said, in the short term, SSS, same-store sales, will not be as valid a measure, as the customer offering is changing significantly from a price-driven, discounted, voucher-driven business to a change to everyday value pricing with higher margins. In simple terms, you know, we're getting out of the discount business and endeavoring to run a profit-driven business. That is exactly what we're seeing in our business today, and we believe we're on track from what that original objective was moving forward.
Turning to the first weeks of trading in H2, there were some one-off unusual events that affected this short window, including some significant weather-related closures and suspension of delivery in parts of Europe. Following positive H1 trading momentum, the Netherlands experienced a significant short-term disruption from severe snow conditions over a nine-day period, followed by further three days of continued but less severe disruption. The period from the second to the twelfth of January, a significant number of stores were either closed or operating delivery only due to significant snow, resulting in materially negative sales compared to the prior year. Markets that were trading positive comps in the first half versus last year, suddenly went to significant negative sales during this period, five-week period. Excuse me.
We also had a full period of Chinese New Year in the prior year, versus this year, Chinese New Year, which started on the 17th of February, which impacted on the sales during that short 5-week. Notwithstanding those events, the most recent last week of trading, closing February 22nd, we had a recovery of sales, which were flat versus the prior year comparative period. Absent those one-off events, I expect sales going forward to more closely resemble the first half of the year, which is a focus on sales that improve unit economics for our franchise partners. Pleasingly, ANZ franchisee profitability was more than 10% higher than the prior year in January, so this approach is working. What matters is we are not chasing volume at any price. We're rebuilding profitable traffic. We're also not abandoning discounting either.
We want Domino's to offer customers great value. It's about getting the balance right. In ANZ, we've adjusted by bringing back some targeted offers, particularly in carryout, where the economics make sense. Tuesday and Saturday activations are deliberate. This is not a return to old habits. We're rebuilding deliberately. First, fix the economics, then stabilize volumes, and then grow. We have work to do to get the same-store sales back to positive. That's a priority. We're not going to abandon discipline to get there. This is consistent with what we discussed previously, including at the AGM. I've said we can't have growth without adequate returns. That hasn't changed. We operate in a resilient global category with leading position in most of our markets. The brand is strong, the franchise network is strong. The model only works when stores make money and the system generates cash.
Europe is showing what disciplined pricing and operational focus can deliver. When unit economics are right, growth follows. In Australia, we're rebuilding store economics first. Japan and France need further improvement. We'll apply the same return discipline there. The key message is this: We're not running a growth at any cost portfolio. We're running a returns-led portfolio. Markets will expand when store-level returns justify it. When unit economics areS strong, this business generates cash and compounds. That is the base we are rebuilding. Our outlook, we said this half would be about a reset. It was. We restored pricing discipline, we simplified the cost base, and we strengthened the balance sheet. Franchisee profitability is at its highest level in three years. We generated over AUD 70 million in free cash flow. We reduced debt by nearly AUD 200 million.
We move to the next stage. The balance sheet is strong and franchisees are making more money, we can return to selective expansion where economics justify it. Germany is performing with positive FY26 year-to-date same-store sales and strong EBIT contribution. We will support organic store openings. In Malaysia, we're progressing refranchising across our company-owned store base. That releases capital, strengthens franchisee ownership, and improves return on invested capital, while supporting new store and upgrades. Across the system, we expect between 20 and 40 new stores over the next 12 - 18 months, selectively and returns-led. Not growth for growth's sake. Growth where returns make sense. We moved away from broad-based discount. That reduced highly price-driven transactions, which was expected. We're calibrating promotions to rebuild traffic on sensible, profitable returns.
We will not give the shop away. This is about profitable growth, not headline growth. As franchisee returns improve, that strengthens DPE's earnings. We've assembled a strong leadership team to execute this next phase. Resetting a business across 12 countries is not simple. It takes discipline and hard work. I want to recognize the work that George Saoud and Atul Sharma have led over the past 8 months. The restructuring and financial discipline that they've driven have laid the foundation for long-term growth profitability. Foundations are stronger, growth will follow returns. I look forward to your questions.
Thank you, Jack, and thank you to George as well for taking that time. As I mentioned, I'm going to start unmuting the questions. First, question is up from Shaun Cousins. Shaun, if you wanted to start off, you should be able to be unmuted.
Yep. Great. Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Nathan. Thanks, Jack and George. Maybe just a clarification, please, on the guidance. Your text in your AGM announcement was, and I quote, "We are confident that the company will exceed consensus full-year NPAT, bracket Visible Alpha for fiscal 2026 as a modest increase on 2025, for fiscal 2025." I'll make the comment that consensus, I think, was AUD 118.7 million then. Today, you've said in your release, "We anticipate that full year 2026 results will be in line with guidance and consistent with market expectations at that time." My question is, will underlying NPAT exceed or be consistent with consensus? They're just two different statements. Are you gonna beat consensus or are you gonna meet it, please?
Yeah. George here, Shaun, and thank you for the question. From where we stand right now, we're looking to beat the consensus at that time.
Okay, great. Sorry, that's unclear in your statement, but clear in your answer there, so thank you. My second question is just around the WA trials. You highlighted the good work that's been done in Australia, with profit being up for franchisees. Is the WA pricing trial and the approach that you've embarked on there, I recognize how the primacy of franchisee profitability, but is it positive for DMP shareholders? You should have lower warehouse volumes, and so that should come at a cost to EBIT in the near term.
Is the offset that you have fewer franchisees on support, or you just need to have a more profitable franchise network just for a business to get going, and the cost is that ANZ needs to earn less money in the very near term to set the business up for growth? Just curious around the WA trials, please.
WA trials, franchisees are making, on average, more profitability out of WA and what we're seeing there. The overall objective will be that short term, it will have warehouse implications for DPE. The long term, it will reduce the financial support and the other support provided to franchisees, which will increase the returns to DPE shareholders.
Fantastic. Thanks, George.
Okay. thank you, Sean. The next person to go is Michael Simotas. Michael, you should be able to unmute now.
Good morning, everyone, thanks for taking my questions. First one from me, look, you're doing a lot of what you promised you would do. Franchisee profitability is up, cost-out is coming through, the balance sheet's improved. You warned us that sales would be soft, but I think the market is a bit spooked by how soft they are. Two questions relating to that. One, is this the worst of what you expect for same-store sales, or could it continue to deteriorate from here? How long can you sustain same-store sales declining before you'd need to make some adjustments to the pricing architecture?
Michael, we, you know, with the WA result, You know, it's driven by, and we can see this very clearly, the loss in sales were the price-driven customers. It's going to take time to be able to bring those back. You know, the exercise, the objective here is to get, you know, to win. They were the heavy user, and as a result of that, you know, we have lost a lot of those. Where we made it, probably went a little soft in WA is we didn't have a promotion program going. We just kind of went in with everyday pricing.
We now accept that promotion is part of the business, and we are now actively putting forward sensible, profitable promotions rather than no promotions, which we started off with. My kind of forecast is that we can demonstrate where the customer loss is. We will get those back over the next 12 months by running sensible promotions. We see that coming back, and as I say, the most recent numbers last week were now back flat. You know, the former, you know, decrease in profitability, I'm sorry, the decrease in sales, same-store sales, was now, you know, across the total business, was now flat. We're quite encouraged that we've seen the decrease in the loss of those customers, the heavy ender.
We are getting increase in check. we're, you know, the net promoter scores are going up. There are a lot of positives as to what's happening, that this is now a stronger business than what it was 12 months ago.
Okay. Yeah, I think I understand the message there. The second one I've got is just in terms of the relationship with DPZ. I've covered your stock for a long time, and I don't think I've ever seen DPZ talk about your business as much as they did on their earnings call this week. Some could interpret that as very supportive and, you know, helping you get the business where you need to get it. Others could interpret it as, you know, putting some pressure on you. Where do you think their position, how patient are they willing to be, and what sort of help can they give you to drive this process?
Michael, to be very straight, I've been very impressed with the support that they've given us. You have to understand that DPE make money on sales and new stores. Those are the two drivers that influence theirs. What we are doing doesn't fit that model, but I think they recognize that the steps that we're taking are required to change this business. I've been very impressed with their attitude and willingness to help, and that's in motion. As I say, they have a different incentive. You know, their incentive is open more stores, get higher sales. Where this business has been for the last 10 years has been going down that path of opening lots of stores and, you know, drive sales.
The missing link was, you know, franchisee profitability was being reduced. That's what we're trying to change. I think that, you know, they understand that. I think the key thing here, Michael, is long term versus short term. These decisions that are being made are in the best interest of the business long term, not short term. We could go back to giving the shop away, not doing that, you know, and as a result of that, you read negative short-term sales loss. We know why that is. It's price-driven customer demanding. If we give sensible promotion, that'll come back. Franchisees will make money, we'll open more stores, sales will increase with more stores. That's the game plan in simple terms.
I might just add to that, Michael. I speak to Sandeep, the CFO, on a regular basis. I spoke to him on the weekend. It's a very supportive relationship. They're coming down to the rally. They'll be here on the weekend and next week. We have a very good relationship working through key areas, you know, pricing and what we're doing through pricing. They're across. They've been very supportive. They did their own reset of pricing, and that was part of their turnaround. You know, I think they've taken the share price, it's now up above $400. It was a lot lower 5-10 years ago. The other area of support is around systems, in continually improving our systems, etc.
Very supportive and a good working relationship.
It's good to hear. Thank you.
Thanks, Michael. The next person, analyst to speak, I'm just unmuting Craig Woolford from MST. Craig, you can go ahead.
Great. Morning, Jack and team. Can I just clarify the path of cost savings that you've got? First, there's a couple of parts to it, just to understand the H1 2026, the contribution of cost savings in that period. Then, I just want to be really clear on the way you're looking at sharing those cost savings. There was commentary about the two-thirds, and then it looks like some of it might be half of that. The AUD 60 million to AUD 70 million figure, is that the rest of that likely to drop by the end of FY27?
Yeah, good question, Craig. We've talked about AUD 60 million to AUD 70 million, we've talked about AUD 20 million to AUD 30 million coming into DPE, sorry, coming to the network in FY26, and we called that 1/3 going to DPE and 2/3 going to franchisees. The components that make up a large part of the cost savings we've called, which is IT, significant cost reduction in IT, you can see that coming through the cash flows. Generally, a lot of those costs were capitalized, they will come over time. They will not come through over one year. They'll come over the 3-4 years that we were depreciating those costs. Where you will see the benefits come through the P&L in a shorter duration would be the food and procurement and logistics savings.
Those deals and the quantification of those deals are coming through the P&L. For franchisees in Australia, they're getting that benefit today.
What was the cost savings in that in the first half?
For franchisees or for ourselves? For ourselves-
Just now in the gross. Yeah, the gross number.
The gross number would have been around AUD 13 million.
Right. It's roughly half of that. And one other cost line that did reduce quite materially in that first half was marketing expenses, was down circa AUD 15 million declined faster than sales. Is that something that can continue, or are there some limitations around, you know, advertising fund or, agreements around your funding model?
No, I mean, the reduction in stores that we've had from last year has obviously meant a reduction in the marketing fund. We run to a percent, a certain percentage across each of the key markets, and they vary. Some markets it's 4%, some markets it's 5%, et cetera. That percentage reflects, is typically what we spend across each of the markets.
It must have dropped faster, because it dropped by 12% versus network sales down 1%.
Yeah. There is a catch-up. There was an overspend a year ago. There was a large overspend that we brought in to the year that we are managing through this period.
Okay. Thanks, George. Appreciate it.
Okay, thank you, Craig. The next question is from Sam Teeger from Citi. Sam, you can go ahead. One more attempt, Sam, if you're able to unmute, you can go ahead.
Try again. Is that working?
Perfect.
Thank you. Hi. Hi, Jack. Hi, George. Thanks very much. What is Domino's doing to address growing consumer GLP-1 adoption?
Sorry, it was a bit soft on our end, but just to clarify, Sam, the question was, and you don't need to repeat, it was a question about the impact of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and those other weight loss drugs.
Yes, that's correct. Thank you.
I don't think we know the answer to that. you know, if you read the articles, they talk about potentially 10% of the population are on this, and reduces appetite. I don't think we know the answer. it, you know, the grocery store, the food service business, you know, a loss of appetite, you know, if people eat less, it's obviously gonna have a factor. I don't think in Australia today, you know, it is material, and whether or not that continues to grow, I'm not sure.
Maybe, Sam, if I can also just some commentary to that. I was speaking to my colleagues at DPZ about this and, you know, their insights into it. Their view was that, you know, pizza was well-placed in an environment where, 1, it's an indulgent meal, so it's not an everyday occasion, so there's not the same impact that you might see of, you know, large grocery retailers. Also that they saw that pizza was well-positioned, given that it was a sharing occasion as well, and that, you know, somewhat put it apart. I think probably the best indicator of that is that the U.S. is, you know, probably the most advanced market in terms of take-up of GLP-1s and other, you know, weight loss drugs, and they printed a very strong same-store sales number, you know, this week.
You know, it indicates that it's not having an effect, but it's certainly something that we. W e constantly monitor trends in terms of food changes and, you know, I mean, we implemented vegan in Australia. We are able to tailor and adjust our menu with, you know, higher protein options whatever our customers are looking for.
Yeah, some good points. Thanks. I wonder if some of their success is due to market share gains. Maybe we can take that offline. I'd also wanna ask about, you know, many retailers are calling out Western Australia as being one of their stronger performing states. What's the risk that what Domino's is seeing in Western Australia won't be a fair reflection of how the rest of Australia will respond to the changes, particularly in some of the East Coast states where the consumer is under a bit of duress?
You're right. WA is a very strong market, and, but I can tell you, in January, Victoria, which is one of the weaker markets in Australia, has had substantial sales and profitability, substantial profitability increases.
The franchisee community, Sam, when you see profit increasing, they are very anxious to make the change. I think in the commentary we just made, you know, it is happening across the board in Australia, that getting out of the heavy discounting has led to an increased profitability, and that's the main thing that gets franchisees excited. Yes, WA was the test market, but it has very rapidly expanded across the country, and thus the result of that's where you see the decline in the sales numbers as that heavy user with lack of price-driven promotions goes away, and our job then is how do we figure to get them back over time, with time, without.
Right. just Yeah, and just checking, in Victoria, it's good to hear you're getting some good numbers out of that state. Have you got all the new pricing in Victoria? Is that reflective of the pricing strategy you have in WA up for control?
Sam was asking if it's the same pricing strategy in WA as in Victoria.
Likely, y es.
Okay. Thank you, Sam. Moving across to Ben Gilbert, from Jarden. Ben, you should be able to unmute now.
Thanks, Nathan. Morning, team. Jack, just interested in terms. Obviously, there's been a lot of scuttlebutt in the press around M&A, all this sort of stuff. Appreciate your comments publicly that there hasn't been entertaining anything. If you looked on a divisional basis in terms of if interest pops up for Japan or Germany or France, and have you had people looking, and is it something you would consider in terms of a sale of one of the regions?
The answer is yes. We are trying to run 12 different countries, different cultures, different languages and things like this. This is not an easy business to run. We recognize that. And there is interest that. And we will try and make decisions on a long-term basis as to what is the company's best interest. Can we make more money in some of the markets that we're not getting a return? One of the issues are those markets probably also don't have the profitability that would justify a good selling price. One of the key values that exists in this company is underdeveloped markets. France and Germany, two in case, you know, 400, 500,000 store potential.
Valuations in the market is largely based on what's the future growth prospects. If we can, and from my point of view, if we can get management correct and get the pricing, the profitability at store level, at unit level correct, and get these units, then we will look at, you know, is this the most efficient way to run this business? You know, we are, we're very fortunate we are associated with the largest pizza company in the world. Very successful. As we've talked about before, they went through a regrowth period. The 2008, the share price of the U.S. company was $3, today it's $400. They got it right, and we have to, we have to do the same.
We have to get the pricing, the profitability at unit level, and whether or not we can run a more efficient business by reshaping this, time will tell. At this stage of the game, our primary objective is, how do we make these businesses more profitable?
That's helpful. Thanks, Jack. Just second one from me, and final one. Just on Andrew's appointment, he comes very well-credentialed in terms of his capabilities regarding market. What's his remit? If he comes in and says: "Look, I know I go hard on pricing again to try and get volume back," or takes a bit of view, is he very much he's on board with this strategy and we shouldn't expect any change, he's just coming in to drive that? The concern being, as you know, obviously in the past, CEOs joining companies that have faced some challenges can often drive rebases, that's just a concern or focus, I suppose, at the moment.
Yeah, I can't predict what he will come in and do or say. I, you know, I can tell you that I've been very impressed with the exposure, and as I look at his background, he has run very successful businesses, he's made the right decisions. You know, this, we're very fortunate to get a guy with his experience level, and he will, you know, and he will not have got to where he did in McDonald's without having a clear understanding of what's in the shareholders' DPE's best interests and what is in the franchisee's best interests.
I have no fear that he will come in and make dumb decisions by wanting to change things, from where we're headed, because I think we're on the right track. I think he'll see that.
That's great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Ben. The next question up is from Ajay Mariswamy from Macquarie. Ajay, you can unmute and go ahead.
Hi. Morning, team. Thanks for taking the question. Just in terms of that Malaysia corporate store sales, in terms of trying to unlock capital there, can you give us any indication on how things are tracking on that?
Yeah, we moved about seven or eight stores at the half year, and we've got plans to do the same for the full year. We're developing a solid franchise team there to move on those stores. Every time we sell those stores, and we're recycling the capital, the profitability from a DPE perspective does not reduce as we sell down stores. It's a win-win. We find that selling down stores, and the resulting impact on us, we get the capital and we continue to generate roughly the same profitability.
Got it. Thank you. Just secondly, on that cost-out savings, you called out the AUD 15 million to 20 million, sorry, AUD 15 million to 25 million in the future. Is that gonna be at a similar split between DPE and franchisees as it has been in the past, one third to you guys and two thirds to the franchisee?
The majority there will go to DPE. There will be costs that are within our cost base, that we will look to reduce our own costs and take those benefits, so largely to ourselves.
All right. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thanks, Ajay. The next up is Thomas Kierath from Barrenjoey. Tom, you should be able to unmute now.
Thanks, Nate.
Oh, sorry, apologies, we've lost him. That was my fault. Sorry, Tom, that's a donation. Tom, you can go ahead now.
Am I back? Am I back?
You're back.
Great. Great. Just had a question on Asia. In the prior period, you closed a bunch of underperforming stores. I think the annualized kind of benefit or the annualized losses from those stores was, like, AUD 15 million, but there hasn't been much improvement in the profitability there. Can you maybe just step through, I guess, the moving parts within that business in the different countries, please?
Yeah, I'll talk about Japan in particular, 'cause majority of the stores that we're talking about is in Japan. I think we've covered Malaysia. Malaysia's done well. We've covered that through the commentary. Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia is growing. With Japan, we closed down a lot of stores. There was an expectation of additional sales coming back into the existing network and material uplift as a reduction of the cost-out of those stores. We haven't seen that materially come through the P&L. What I would say in Japan is, if you look at Japan 2019, pre-COVID, Japan was doing $50 million, $53 million on about $600 million of sales. Through COVID, we significantly increased the number of stores, we increased the complexity of the business, and we've ended up.
in a business where we really need to go and work through to remove a lot of that complexity, et cetera, which Dita's doing, and improve the offers. Unfortunately, we haven't seen closure of stores impact our sales to the level we expected it to. That is part of the network analysis we're continually looking at. We believe in Japan, it is a market that we used to have significant profits in, that we complicated after the COVID and during the COVID period.
Great. Thanks, George. Just second on France, like, the Europe numbers are pretty good. Well, at least Benelux and Germany, the commentary is that France is pretty tough. Like, is that profitable in the half? Is it loss-making? Like, how are you kind of thinking about that business, in particular, that country?
Yeah, France was a small loss. France, I think the biggest opportunity with France is driving our sales and marketing campaigns and strategy in alignment with our franchisees, and execution and compliance to those programs. That's where Phil is doing, and he's doing a really good job getting the franchisees on board. The opportunity in France is really execution of better offers, but running the digital programs more effectively, and aligning those offers and compliance of those offers with franchisees in the marketplace. There's a lot of complexity in France in the different pricing tiers and the marketing programs. It's all about simplification and building the ways of working with franchisees.
Great. Thanks, George.
Okay, thanks, Tom. The last questions are actually being submitted through chat, and they come from Chris Saccardo and from Ben Wood-droe on a similar topic. Jack, those are the 20-40 new stores over the next 12-18 months. Firstly, is that a net figure? How many stores are you planning on closing over that same period? Also, what's the long-term franchise profitability target?
There will obviously be some store closures going forward. That's the new store. I don't think we sit here today with that. We can't give you a number on store closures, George.
No, that's how the company is. If you look at the financial position, we've got the financial capacity to move forward and go into new markets that we think we can operate profitably. The 20-40, I think this business is a momentum business. If we can demonstrate franchisees can make a higher return, have a shorter payback on their investment, they will want to open more stores, and that will make everybody happy. The 20-40, we think we're relatively confident that there's enough momentum in the pipeline to do that. I can't give you a net number because we don't sit here today with anything that is imminent.
There will be some store closures where for whatever reason, the store is unprofitable franchisees. That's t he plan is development will follow profitable business. That's the future.
I can just build on that. We are not expecting the size of closures at all that was done last year. I think through this reset and sort of call it transition period, those 12 new stores, you know, I would expect that to continue and grow.
Follow-up. Two follow-up questions from Sam Teeger from Citi, just on that store opening expectations. Is AUD 130,000 a group number, still the target we should think about for franchise profitability, which we've shared previously was an average expectation? Is that the number we should still be thinking about for franchise profitability to drive material store openings?
As an average, that is the number we're working towards, Sam. That hasn't changed. you know, when you look at the sort of cost of construction, and the right payback periods, that is the number, that it still needs to be around AUD 130,000 to make this sensible.
Another question from Sam. The SSS decline accelerated to - 2.5% for the whole of the first half, compared to - 1.2% for the first 7 weeks disclosed to the AGM. Can you help us understand the trading environment in those final 9 weeks of that first half?
The first, what was saying?
First 17 weeks, - 1.2%, and then accelerated to - 2.5% for the first half.
Yeah. As we rolled out more and more of those promotions, and as they expanded, that's had an impact on our same-store sales. As we took more and more, removed more and more discounting and removed the promotions, that we thought were very low, marginal contribution of franchisees, that's had an impact on same-store sales. The key headline here, though, Sam, is franchisee profitability is growing, and it's going in the right direction.
Sam, I took a quick look at your commentary, and you kind of zero in on same-store sales. I think what you are ignoring in taking that position is we have consciously changed the way this business is being run by getting out of the loss-making, heavy discounting, sales-driven. That has, as a result, reduced the customer count and same-store sales. It's not an apples and apples comparison that we consciously said we're going to get out of the loss-making sales that this business has had and restructure it in a manner that is profitable at the store level. It is not an apples and apples same-store sales as we might think about on a consistent basis of a company that's kind of going forward.
This is a conscious change. We think we're on track to move this business into a new territory where we can expand at a profitable growth. It's driven by franchisee profitability.
Okay. Thank you, Jack, and thank you to all of our callers. We have now gone through all of the open questions and all of those analysts who put up their hands. Thank you very much for your time today. We'll be seeing many of our shareholders today and over the next couple of days at our roadshow. We look forward to seeing you there. The recording of this webcast today will be posted on our website as soon as the recording becomes available. Thank you very much for your time.