Good morning. My name is Dennis, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Domino's Pizza First Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Lynn Liddle, Executive Vice President of Communications. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thanks, Dennis, and good morning, everybody, and welcome to our first quarter 2016 earnings call. I've got the privilege today of doing this opening for the very last time. I'm excited to tell you that we're going to follow our usual pattern of pointing towards our safe harbor statement to make sure that you have all seen that. I will ask also the media, as per usual, to be in listen-only mode. We're going to spend the next little while with prepared comments from both our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, then we will open it up for questions for all of you. Let's kick it off this morning with Jeffrey Lawrence, our Chief Financial Officer.
Thank you, Lynn, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, our positive brand momentum continued as we once again posted strong same-store sales in both our domestic and international businesses. U.S. comps grew by 6.4%. International comps grew by 7.9%. A fantastic outcome when considering the great results that we were rolling over from Q1 a year ago. We have now had 20 straight quarters of positive U.S. comps and more than 22 consecutive years of positive international comps. We also continue to increase our store count at a healthy pace, which we believe is more evidence that our brand is strong and growing. Our diluted EPS grew 9.9% over the prior year quarter. With that, let's take a closer look at the financial results for Q1. Global retail sales, which are the total retail sales at franchise and company-owned stores worldwide, grew 7.3% in the quarter.
When we exclude the adverse impact of foreign currency, global retail sales grew by 11.7%. The drivers of this retail sales growth included strong domestic same-store sales, which as I mentioned, grew by 6.4% in the quarter. Broken down, our U.S. franchise business was up 6.6%, while our corporate stores were up 4%. Both of these comp increases were driven primarily by traffic or order count growth as consumers continue to respond positively to the overall brand experience that we offer them. To a lesser extent, we also saw some ticket growth during the quarter. On the unit count front, we were also very pleased to report that we opened 16 net domestic stores in the first quarter, consisting of 18 store openings and two closures. Our international division had another strong quarter as same-store sales grew 7.9%, lapping a prior year quarter increase of 7.8%.
Our international division added 146 stores during Q1, comprised of 163 store openings and 17 closures. We continue to have broad, diversified strength across our international markets, which is driving these results. Turning to revenues. Total revenues were up 7.4% from the prior year. This increase was primarily a result of increased global comps and store count growth, which also drove higher supply chain volumes. Currency exchange rates negatively impacted international revenues this quarter by $3 million versus the prior year quarter due to the dollar strengthening against most of our currencies. For the full fiscal year, we continue to estimate that foreign currency could have an $8 million-$12 million negative year-over-year impact on pre-tax earnings. As you know, there are many uncontrollable factors that drive the underlying exchange rates, which make this a harder part of our business to predict.
Our revenues were also negatively impacted by a calendar shift as the New Year's Eve and New Year's Day holidays fell in the 53rd week of 2015. This calendar shift helped revenues and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2015, as previously disclosed and included in the 2015 53rd week adjustment. However, this calendar shift had the opposite effect in the first quarter of 2016. We expect that the calendar shift will again come into play as a positive when we release fourth quarter 2016 earnings. Moving on to operating margin. As a percentage of consolidated revenues, consolidated operating margin for the quarter decreased slightly to 31% from 31.3% in the prior year quarter. Corporate store and supply chain margin percentages decreased for the quarter, offset in part by the positive impact of our franchise businesses.
The operating margin in our company-owned stores decreased to 24.6% from 26.2%, driven primarily by higher labor rates, transaction-related expenses, and increased depreciation from our Pizza Theater reimaging program. These margin pressures were partially offset by increased sales and lower food and delivery costs during the quarter. The supply chain operating margin decreased to 10.9% from 11.2%. While supply chain dollar profits were up based on higher volumes, rising labor costs led to the decline in the operating margin as a percentage of revenues, with lower commodity costs partially offsetting that decline. We are actively focused on labor costs in supply chain as this is an opportunity area for us.
As we discussed in January at our Investor Day, we expect to increase investments over time in this important area of our business as we continue to grow and as we continue to provide a quality product to all of our stores in the U.S. and Canada. As a reminder, commodities are generally priced on a constant dollar markup to our franchisees. Therefore, lower commodity prices do not impact our supply chain dollar profit. They do, however, positively impact our supply chain margin as a percent of revenues. The average cheese block price in the first quarter was $1.47 per pound versus $1.54 in the same period last year. This helped drive down our overall market basket in the U.S. by approximately 1.5% as compared to the prior year quarter.
We still expect that commodities we use domestically will be largely consistent with our previous estimate of flat to up 2% in 2016 from 2015 levels. Let's now shift to G&A. G&A increased by $5.7 million in the first quarter versus the prior year quarter, due primarily to two factors. First, our planned investments in technology, primarily in e-commerce and other technological initiatives, and the teams that support those initiatives. Please note that these investments are partially offset by transaction fees that we receive for digital transactions from our franchisees that are not included in G&A. Second, we also continue to make planned investments to support the strong growth of our international business. We continue to project that our G&A will be in the range of $290 million-$295 million for the full fiscal year.
Keep in mind as well that our G&A expense for the year can vary up or down by, among other things, our performance versus our plan, as that affects variable performance-based compensation expense. Moving down the income statement, net interest expense increased by $5.8 million in the first quarter, primarily as a result of increased net debt from our 2015 recapitalization. Our reported effective tax rate was 37.6% for the quarter. We expect that 37%-38% will be our effective tax rate for the foreseeable future. Our first quarter net income was down 1.8%. This decrease was primarily driven by the aforementioned increase in interest expense. Higher domestic and international comps, global store growth, and strong supply chain volumes all helped to increase net income. This was offset in part by the negative impact of foreign currency exchange rates.
Our first quarter diluted EPS was $0.89 versus $0.81 last year, which was a 9.9% increase. Here is how that $0.08 increase breaks down. Lower diluted share counts, primarily as a result of the accelerated share repurchase program, benefited us by $0.09. Our higher interest expense, primarily as a result of our higher debt balance, negatively impacted us by $0.07. Foreign currency exchange rates negatively impacted us by $0.03. Most importantly, our improved operating results benefited us by $0.09. This is net of an approximate $0.02 negative impact from the new year's calendar shift. Now turning to the balance sheet. During the first quarter, we received and retired approximately 457,000 shares in connection with the final settlement of our previously announced $600 million accelerated share repurchase program, bringing the shares we received and retired in total for the program to 5.3 million shares.
The average purchase price for these shares was $112.87. After the accelerated share repurchase program was completed, as of the end of the first quarter 2016, we had $200 million of capacity under our board-authorized open-market share repurchase program. In the first quarter, we also made $27.4 million of required principal payments on our long-term debt. As always, we will continue to evaluate the most effective means for deploying our cash to the benefit of our shareholders. Overall, our positive momentum continued in the first quarter, and we are pleased with our results. Thank you for your time today. Now I will turn it over to Patrick.
Thanks, Jeff, good morning, everyone. As I look back on our first quarter results, I feel good about our continued momentum and the overall strength of our business model. Our strategy is steady. We're emphasizing continuous improvement and resisting the complacency that can come with success. We're executing on big, bold, innovative ideas at an extraordinary pace. I am very pleased with our solid sales performance domestically and yet another tremendous quarter for our international business, whose positive same-store sales streak continues to be unmatched at 89 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales growth. Our franchisees just keep getting it done. The recent performance of our public master franchisees speaks for itself, our domestic franchisees continue to impress me with the way they lead and operate with great passion and execution.
Overall, the fundamentals of the Domino's business model, especially the top-line sales machine, remain very strong, we will continue to invest to grow the business, particularly in areas where we see a distinct ROI, keeping the longer-term success of the enterprise at the forefront of our thinking and actions. Turning specifically to our domestic business, it was a rock solid quarter and great start to 2016, marked our 20th consecutive quarter of positive sales comps. Our television advertising highlighted our DXP pizza delivery vehicle, which we debuted for you at our Investor Day. As Russell told you then, the commercial scored very highly in tests as it reinforced with customers that Domino's is an innovative brand. It's consistent with our strategy of big, bold ideas and contributed to that brand momentum we keep talking about. Our new loyalty program is getting a strong start.
Sign-ups are healthy, we're getting more frequency from our regular customers, proving that loyalty drives loyalty. We expect this to be a contributor to sales comps going forward based on the early positive signs we're experiencing. On the technology front, the quarter was highlighted in the U.S. by two new exciting ordering platforms, Apple Watch and Amazon Echo. Partnering with two of the premier technology companies in the world is more proof of the tremendous work being done by our digital team. Our investments in technology have helped build a truly unmatched in-house team, I am proud of the contributions that the great technology talent we've assembled here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is making toward our current performance.
We told you last quarter about the progress of our global online ordering platform, which we call GOLO, as well as the deployment of the Domino's Pulse point-of-sale system across the globe. We now have 20 markets using GOLO 60% of our stores outside of the U.S. utilizing Domino's Pulse. Both increases since our last update following Q4. As it did in the U.S., a widely used point-of-sale system worldwide helps our digital potential and ability to share best practices and digital expertise with franchisees worldwide. You may have also noticed some media attention around the test of an autonomous delivery vehicle, DRU, which stands for Domino's Robotic Unit, by our Australian franchisee, Domino's Pizza Enterprises.
While we don't expect DRU to be making the majority of our deliveries in the near term, it is certainly another bold, forward-thinking idea, and it is very much in line with our commitment to continually experiment and find new ways to improve our business model. Speaking of great things happening across the globe, the pace of success for the best international model in QSR continued on. We had yet another strong sales performance. Sounds boring, but certainly isn't to us. We turned in our best first quarter ever for international store growth with 146 net store openings. We're making good progress on the conversion in France of Pizza Sprint stores to Domino's stores, Domino's Pizza Enterprises has now officially completed the acquisition of Joey's in Germany, which will begin converting to Domino's in the second quarter.
Standout markets of recent note include the U.K. as well as Mexico. Chalk up yet another terrific quarter for our international business. Our master franchisees are once again performing at the highest of levels. In summary, it was a very positive start to 2016. Our sales momentum continued, innovation persisted, and our team and franchisees across the globe showed that they are facing the challenge of sustaining success with passion and energy. Thanks, I will now open it up for questions.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question's from the line of Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Thanks very much. Hey, guys. Good morning.
Good morning, Brian.
Just have two questions for you, both on the U.S. business. I think that you said check growth softened a little bit in the first quarter versus the fourth. Can you just talk about what the driver of that is? On the company margin, it was down a little bit year-over-year. Can you rehash exactly what drove that in the quarter?
Yeah, Brian, it's Jeff. First on the U.S. comp, significantly driven by traffic or orders, with just a small amount of ticket increase. Not a big amount of ticket increase. As you know, we are really focused around getting comps more through orders and traffic than we are tickets, so that's right in line with what we plan for and expect. As far as the company-owned store margin, if I heard you right, really, biggest thing going against us there is more labor rate than anything else. Food, not a big movement Q1 over Q1 last year. You got some other things moving around that you can see in our 10-Q. More than anything, it's higher labor rates.
Again, as you guys know, our Team USA footprint is a little bit more urban on balance than our franchisee footprint, so a little bit more susceptible to rate changes. Again, as we've said before, we view it as a short-to-medium-term kind of challenge that we need to deal with. We are focused on growing our way out of that over time. That's what we will focus on doing, as well as our franchisees who are also impacted with higher rates.
Okay. Is there any way you can tell us what the check growth was in the fourth quarter versus first quarter, so we can get a better idea of what's going on with the check?
Yeah. The short answer is we don't give those exact thing, but I can tell you it was not the significant or material part of the 6.4 that you see.
Okay. Thanks, guys. Congrats on another good quarter.
Thank you.
Your next question's from the line of Karen Holthouse with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. One quick housekeeping question. The New Year shift that you mentioned, is that something that shows up in the same-store sales number or just in revenues?
Karen, it does not impact the comp number or the same-store sales number. It does actually flow through a little bit on the revenues. Again, we've estimated that it's a $0.02 negative in Q1. When you look at the Q4 results that we had, we identified and backed out the 53rd week, which was approximately $0.12. The benefit of those really busy profitable days, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, were in that $0.12.
Okay. That makes sense. Then was there any sort of shift in weather this year versus last year, given the amount of severe weather we had last year that wasn't really repeated this year?
Not material. At the margin, maybe a little bit, but that's not a material driver.
One actual question. With Rewards in the Wild now for four or five months, what are you seeing in terms of the redemption cycle for, at one point, talked about it's going to take a year to really get real data on it. It seems like that timeline has been pulled forward. Have you been at all pleasantly surprised by how quickly you're able to change consumer behavior?
Yeah, we're feeling good about the loyalty program. As you say, it's still only I guess seven or eight months in. It clearly was a positive contributor to comps in the first quarter, and we're seeing enough on it that we're feeling good about how it's going to affect the growth on the business going forward.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question is from the line of John Glass with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Jeff, just looking at the earnings and the earnings growth this quarter versus prior quarters, I guess I appreciate your calling out the calendar shift, maybe some of us didn't have that. When you exclude that, even then, your earnings growth was low double digits, low teens, and it has been high teens or better in the prior many quarters. What do you think the key differences are here? Are there cost items, for example, in the first quarter that will continue, like labor, or there's some one-time issues? Can you talk a little bit about is this the right kind of thinking about earnings growth going forward, and is this just maybe the reality of more like mid-single digit comps versus double digits, which we've enjoyed over the last several quarters?
Yeah. John, great question. The first thing I would say is when you roll over a 14.5% comp and the throughput that gets you a year ago, putting up a 6.4, which we are very proud of and excited about, on balance wouldn't have got you the flow-through as if we would've thrown up another double digit. When you look at the two-year comp, north of 20%, we feel great about the underlying momentum and the fundamental strength. When you look at 9.9% year-over-year, that's the biggest thing. As I mentioned just a moment ago, also opportunities for us in some margin areas. Again, corporate stores being pinched a little bit by labor rates. Supply chain, busier than they've ever been, doing a fantastic job of keeping up with the U.S. business. They're being stretched a little bit.
We kind of mentioned that at the Investor Day in January. It's an area of our business that we are going to invest behind, to continue to evolve and make sure we can keep up with the growth that we're seeing. Again, you also have FX again this quarter, another $3 million negative for Q1 versus last year. You know what? When you add it all up, it does get you in that 10% range. Again, as you know, things can be a little bumpy along the way. What we're focused on is continuing to build the brand the right way with top-line sales growth driven by traffic, driven by best-in-class digital. You know what? Earnings will fall where they may, but we feel good about the long-term opportunity about our financial engine.
The only thing I would add to what Jeff said is we've got two quarters in a row now where the two-year comp is north of 20%. I don't believe we have ever done that. The domestic momentum is as good as it has ever been. We feel good about where we are.
The question wasn't about the comp momentum, which our two or even a three-year stack is unbelievable. It just had to do with what earnings growth expectations have been. Just one follow-up. Pizza Hut, for the first time in a long time, is comping positively. Historically, you've said it doesn't really seem to matter that there's a big unconsolidated bunch of market share out there. Is that still the case when you look down into your data that when one major competitor starts to move materially higher than they've been, there's still no real impact on your business? I know it doesn't seem like it from the outside, but is the inside view the same?
I think it is. I guess I'd go back to what I was just saying. We saw very strong comps each of the last two quarters, particularly given what we were rolling over. I guess I would repeat what I think you've heard me say many times around the category, which is the big story remains the big players taking share from the smaller players. The fact that the Pizza Hut had a better comp
Rolling over, I think what was a small negative from the previous year is still a reflection of that share moving from the smaller players to the bigger players. I don't think we did feel it really in our comp at all as they were up a bit in the first quarter.
Thank you.
Your next question is from the line of Alton Stump with Longbow Research. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good morning.
Morning, Alton.
Just two questions. If I heard this wrong please correct me, but as you think back to the New Year's, New Year's Eve timing shift, how much of an impact did that have on your comps, ballpark, do you think, in the first quarter?
Yeah. It's less about the comp increase than it is about just the profits falling to the bottom line, both across the international domestic franchise as well as the stores and supply chain. We estimated that it had a $0.02 headwind for us in Q1 2016. If it hurt us in Q1, it means it helped us in Q4. Again, that identified 53rd week item affecting comparability that we call out just about three months ago of $0.12 in Q4 included that positive effect. When you don't have New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in your first quarter, it's going to hurt you a little bit. With the brand as strong as it is and with the volumes as strong as they are, it's going to hurt you a little bit more than it has maybe in the past.
Okay, it's helpful. Thanks. Just secondly, I'd be surprised, Jeff, as your currency update is unchanged, given the fact that we have started to see some major currency at least somewhat normalized versus the U.S. dollar. Any color on what you're factoring in into your current or into your unchanged FX guidance for the year?
Yeah. As I said a moment ago, FX is largely unpredictable, if it were more predictable, we'd all be doing something else. A year ago, we said that we thought 2015 was going to be $8 million-$12 million going into that year, we ended up at a negative $20 million. This year, we looked at independent consensus estimates from economists, when you add it up, it looks again, like it's going to be an $8 million-$12 million headwind in 2016. In the last two or three weeks, there's a little bit of softening in the U.S. dollar, nothing that would cause us to think that that's going to be a permanent state for the FX. $3 million hit to earnings pre-tax for Q1, kind of in line with that $8 million-$12 million if you play that out.
Again, can it move around either for the better or worse than the $8-$12 that we've shown as an outlook for 2016? The answer to that is yes, and sometimes materially. We're going to let that play out a little bit more. We will continue to update all of the shareholders along the way with the impact that has on our outlook on it as the year progresses, and we will see where we land.
That momentum should slow going forward.
Well, I'm not going to get into the kind of forecasting, the specifics going forward. That's not our practice. What I would say is we obviously feel very good about the momentum of the business, both domestically and internationally. The news on the loyalty front is we have now seen enough from the results on that to have a sense that it is helping our comp, and clearly, that gives us some confidence. In terms of projections on near term, we don't get into that. We just stick with our long-term guidance.
Great. Then just the gap between the company-owned units and the franchise units, it looks like it was a little bit wider than it has been historically. Any call-outs there in terms of why the domestic franchise units outperformed you guys by such a wide margin?
Yeah. If you look at the two-year comp, they're actually identical. I guess what I'd say though is you are always going to see some noise one way or another between those, because we are essentially in eight markets with the corporate stores. It's always going to be a little bit more reliant on some specific local market conditions. The two-year comp is fundamentally identical for corporate stores and franchise stores.
Got it. Just my last question. When you guys have tested the Domino's Rewards and your initial results, are you seeing that the Domino's Rewards customers tend to spend more? I know your comp has been predominantly driven by traffic, and I know the Domino's Rewards program is designed to drive traffic. Should we expect that the average check to start to increase as more and more of your customers sign up for Domino's Rewards?
No, I mean, our Domino's Rewards program is. I think we even talked about this a bit at our Investor Day. You've got a choice to make when you design these. We designed ours so that it is about orders. You get 10 points for every order that is over $10.
It is rewarding frequency as opposed to rewarding spend. It is playing out that way.
Great. Thank you very much.
Your next question is from the line of John Ivankoe with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you. A question is on the supply chain, which has been more volatile in operating income as of late. There were some comments about perhaps optimizing some labor while continuing to invest in what is obviously a very important strategic part of your business. What type of operating income gains should we expect out of that division over 2016 and 2017? Obviously, understanding there's going to be not only volatility around the dough balls, but also, perhaps some volatility which is difficult for us to see in terms of the Pizza Theater upgrades.
Yeah. John, I think the answer is, ultimately, you're going to see it grow kind of like you have in the past. If you look at its profits and dollar profit growth as opposed to margin shifts, it has fundamentally kind of grown in line with the pace of our business growth overall. What we saw in the first quarter was our team is very focused on supporting the stores. The most important thing they do is to be effective and make sure that we're getting the service levels to the stores that we need. In the first quarter, that means we may have been a little bit less efficient. That meant a little bit of overtime, but you're not looking at an order of magnitude on that is that big.
What I would say in terms of the investments is, while there may be some investments in people, when we have talked about those, we are talking more about capital expenditures going forward, because we're going to need to increase some of the capacity in our system. That's really more what we've been talking about as we think about investments going forward. I guess what I'd say is, when you look at kind of the profitability of the supply chain business, I would always say focus more on the dollar profits than on the percentage margins. The percentage margins, as you know, are going to move with commodities, whereas the dollar profits are going to tend to be more consistent.
Okay. Thank you. Understood. Then secondly, you've run much lower cash balances, completely unrestricted cash balances than you currently have. What do you think the right minimum cash balance is for Domino's as we think quarter to quarter? Secondly, could you take advantage of any early refinancing opportunities for your 2017 due securities?
That's a good question, John. I'll do your second one first. As you know, our 2012 debt that's outstanding expires in January of 2019 and has a par call, or basically could take it out without penalty, next summer in the middle of 2017. You know that we're never going to kind of tip our hand as to what we're going to do, but it's always a possibility that we could go anytime between now and January of 2019 into that asset-backed securitization market that has served us so well. We will keep our options open, and we'll continue to consult with the management team and with our board and do what we think is right for the shareholders. As far as cash balances, we did roll into the end of Q1 with a higher unrestricted cash balance than we normally do. That was expected.
Again, we knew as part of our recapitalization, we were going to have around $700 million of excess proceeds. Basically, the maximum amount that we could've flown through our accelerated share repurchase and make it efficient was $600 million. During the accelerated share repurchase, you're really kind of, not prohibited, but it's hard to actually compete with your own ASR in the open market at the same time. We knew we were going to run with kind of a temporarily high cash balance. Then again, as I said in the prepared remarks, we are very proud of our history of deploying cash in an efficient way to our shareholders. Again, I won't tip our hand as to how exactly or when we'll actually do that, but that will remain our focus going forward.
I think longer term, without giving you an exact number as to the $ that we want to see in cash, it's lower than you see at the end of Q1.
Thank you.
Your next question is from the line of Joseph Buckley with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Can I ask you to elaborate a little bit on the wage rate inflation you're seeing in the company stores? I know you mentioned labor with the supply chain, but I wasn't sure if that was the overtime issue, or how important that labor component is in the supply distribution business as well.
Thanks, Joe. It was really, I think, kind of two different things in our corporate stores and in supply chain. Supply chain, honestly, was about keeping up with the business. While they were very effective at doing that, there were some opportunities on efficiency. These were not big dollars in the grand scheme of things. From the perspective of Team USA, we Stores in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Minimum wage, as you know, has gone up in N.Y., so that's really the wage rate pressure that we're talking about. That's really primarily about N.Y. That's kind of a short-term thing. As you know, our view on that has always been that as wage rates move, you may see a little bit of dislocation in the near term on that.
Over the medium term and longer term, you see that both show up in better efficiency because frankly, as the wage rate goes up, stores tend to get better and more efficient about managing labor hours. You also see over time, price settling in as well a little bit. So, we kind of absorbed that a bit in the first quarter. You may see that again as wage rates are going to continue to move in N.Y. at the beginning of each year. You adjust around that, and I think over time you're going to see that kind of come back out again. That's at least the goal.
Patrick, can I ask you a big picture question on delivery? We're hearing more and more brands in various sectors of the industry exploring it, talking about it. How do you think about that market and obviously, the premium position that the pizza category has, but more importantly that Domino's has?
Joe, it's an interesting question. We absolutely watch everything that's going on out there. There are a lot of different people, often third parties that are trying to get into the kind of package or food delivery business. My understanding today is that some of the larger players are making pretty good money moving people around. That from a kind of variable profit standpoint, you are not yet seeing a lot of profit for them moving things around. We'll watch as that develops. We clearly believe we are the most efficient around at delivering food. It's something that we've been perfecting over 55 years. It certainly is something that has given us, and we believe will continue to give us real competitive advantage. We do it very efficiently. It is certainly something that we're watching and keeping our eye on.
There is demand for the convenience that we provide the people of delivering food to them. I think it's to be expected that others are going to look at that. I don't think yet today within the restaurant industry, you're seeing any of them doing very significant scale of delivery through the third parties. I think you've still got pressure within those third parties on whether or not they're able to make money doing that. It's going to be interesting. We're certainly watching it closely. As of this time, still remain pretty confident that we uniquely do this in an efficient way and at a scale that allows us to be efficient.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Thanks, Joe.
Your next question is from the line of Stephen Anderson with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Yeah, this is a follow-up to Joe's question just now. As you know, some of the higher wages you're seeing in some of the urban stores, N.Y. and California, has this influenced any of your decisions with regard to your company store opening schedule?
It has not. Just for a point of clarification, we don't have any corporate stores in California. This is really more about N.Y. It is not. If you look at the overall profitability of our corporate stores and the overall return on investment, it's a great business. We don't see it really affecting that over the medium or long term.
In which other states are you seeing the most wage pressures where your company-owned stores would see an impact?
N.Y. is really the biggest of those. We don't have corporate stores in California. We do not have corporate stores in Washington State. Those three states are probably the ones that have put kind of the biggest increases on the board for wage rates.
Thank you.
Your next question is from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you very much. Two questions. Just one on promotions. I know Patrick, in recent years, it's been all about methods of ordering with technology front and center, and I think you said there were two new platforms in the first quarter. Which seems to imply, and I think you've mentioned you have this huge backlog of presumably great products to launch whenever you feel, I guess they're quote unquote "needed." So I'm just wondering, where do we stand in terms of your outlook for the rest of this year? Do you consider or are you contemplating new pizza menu product items? In order to perhaps drive some new news, are you still happy in coming quarters really focusing more on just the ordering platforms?
Not going to get into any forward-looking thoughts on that. What I will tell you is we do have lots of things in the pipeline, both from food and technology. We feel quite good about where we are on that front.
Understood. Just as the labor discussion continues to heat up across the industry, obviously it's not much of a company-operated impact, just based on your franchise mix, but it is evident in those company stores. I'm just wondering what you maybe hear from your franchisees in terms of their response. Needless to say, they're at record high profits, so there's somewhat some insulation for them. Whether they contemplate more menu pricing or whether there's ever any internal discussion about the $5.99 value promotion maybe needing to be tweaked, or I don't know whether that's just viewed as a pillar of the menu and will never change. Just wondering how the franchisees are addressing these cost pressures.
Well, first you answered your own question. We made over $125,000 a store at the franchise level last year. Record level of profitability for our franchisees. You're seeing accelerating store growth. Overall, they feel very good about where we are and the outlook for the business. Do we have discussions about all of the things that you just listed? Absolutely. I guess what I would say is, we operate in over 80 countries around the world. We operate in labor markets that vary dramatically. There are places we're operating today where wage rates are over $20 an hour and markets where wage rates are significantly lower than they are in the U.S., and we're pretty darn good at it. We're efficient. The efficiency of our model has been a strength for a long time. The relatively limited menu makes us more efficient.
The scale that we have around delivery makes us more efficient on that side. We have a technology platform that is also driven efficiencies, and we think gives us opportunities to drive more efficiencies going forward. Certainly, we have lots of conversations about how to address these things. The great news is our competition has to deal with all of the same things. At the end of the day, the competitive landscape is one of who figures things out better, who's more efficient, who figures out how to balance driving value for the customer effectively, who has the best people in the industry, and we feel good about where we are.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question is from the line of Paul Westra with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi, how are you? Good afternoon or good morning. Just a question on the U.S. business. I know you steadily mentioned that Domino's is very insulated from competitive pressures, maybe even from direct competitors. Certainly in the first quarter, we heard a lot about some market share shifting between segments, namely the QSR taking share from casual dining. I guess my question is, are you seeing the overall pizza category? Do you track that? Is there some movement there in the momentum in general? Even if not, maybe just comment on general competitor pressures, maybe how you respond to them locally, if they are, or geographically. I think some of the shifting was during lunch, so maybe just comment on how you respond to the changing competitive landscape within or outside the category.
Sure. I think, Chris, that first, the pizza category is growing a bit. It's still not robust growth. There were a number of years there where the pizza category really didn't grow. We're now seeing more in the range of low single-digit growth in the pizza category. That's a little bit better. I think from an overall restaurant industry perspective, at the end of the day, it really comes down to, are you giving the great value to your customer? Are you giving them a level of product quality and service, and the image of your stores that's creating demand at the price point that you're offering? I know that's kind of an obvious statement and an obvious equation, but it is something that we spend a lot of time looking at.
At how customers are feeling about the quality of our food and the service that we're providing, and are we doing that all at a value that's working for them. I think if you look broadly at the adoption of technology, we're proud to be in the category that has probably done the best job with technology, and I think that's giving some advantage to the pizza category overall, and not just Domino's. That may be helping at the margin as well.
This may just follow up. Did you see any change in the comp trajectory between daytime deliveries and evening?
Not materially, no.
Great. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Your final question comes from the line of Chris O'Cull with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Morning, Chris.
I did have a couple of follow-ups on the wage inflation commentary. Did you say what level of inflation franchisees are seeing right now?
Yeah, it really depends on the market. On average, they're going to be seeing a little bit less than we do, just because of the balance of where the stores are and how affected they're going to be. On average, affecting them less, but averages are dangerous. I will tell you one of the interesting things that I think everyone in the restaurant industry is looking at right now is, while we operate in lots of markets in the world that have very different wage rates, both higher and lower than the U.S., I can't think of any markets where you have wage rates that may vary dramatically within the market. We are heading that direction in the U.S. It's an interesting challenge for the business. It's something that I think every restaurant company is going to be thinking about.
Certainly something that we're spending time on and we're bringing our analytical prowess to understand how we operate in an environment where you're a national brand, but you have cost structures that may vary fairly dramatically from state to state. The short answer is, on average, our corporate stores will have a little bit more wage pressure than our franchisees. The interesting challenge is, as we move forward, is going to be an operating environment where those numbers may be pretty different.
Just to explore that a little more, does your technology capabilities give you an advantage in terms of being a national brand, but able to establish trade area level pricing? Does that give you an advantage in terms of communicating promotions to guests?
Well, first, most pricing is set locally. While we have a national promotion that our franchisees and our corporate stores are honoring, most of the rest of their pricing and their coupons are set locally by market. There are ways to adjust. I guess in terms of technology, what I would say is it gives us lots of advantages, and there may be ways in which it allows us to address this a little bit more effectively as well.
I wasn't thinking of a trade area being a market, but a store-level trade area. Do you find that you see that as well?
Individual franchisees within a market may vary their pricing. You might see different pricing between different stores within a market, but on average, pricing within a market tends to be far more the same than you're going to see variability.
Okay. How would the change in the overtime rule affect a typical pizza operator?
Well, we're going to see how that all shakes out here. There's a lot going on around that right now. Certainly, it could wind up impacting. Primarily what it's going to do is it's going to cause you to be far more efficient about not having overtime in your stores.
If you had managers below that 50,000 threshold, how would you think about that? Would a lot of people switch over to hourly employees?
Yeah, I'm not going to get into all the details on that.
Fair enough.
It's something else to look at and figure out how you're going to do it most efficiently, but also put yourself in a position where you're going to be able to attract the best people in the industry.
Fair enough. One last question. Jeff, it seems like the category discounted more in the quarter. I'm surprised with the ticket increase. Did you guys increase your discounting in the quarter and was able to drive your check through other means, or?
Didn't materially change our pricing in the quarter.
Great. Okay. Thank you.
At this time, there are no further questions. Please continue with any closing remarks.
Terrific. Well, listen. Before we officially close, I'd like to acknowledge some recent news that many of you are aware of, which actually takes effect this coming Monday, May 2nd, which is the retirement of Lynn Liddle, who is sitting across from me for her final earnings call at Domino's this morning, and the appointment of Tim McIntyre, who is sitting across from me for his first as the new Executive Vice President of Communications, Investor Relations, and Legislative Affairs. Tim is a 31-year veteran of Domino's Communications. I look forward to many of you getting to meet and work closely with him along the way. Lynn, I join the investment community in saying we're going to miss you very much. Thank you for all you've done to move the Domino's business forward over the past 14 years.
Domino's would not be what it is today without your leadership. With that, I thank everyone for joining today and look forward to discussing our second quarter earnings with you on July 21st.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the Domino's Pizza First Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.