Highlights

• Profit before tax* increased 24.5% to £6.3m (2005: £5.0m). Unadjusted profit before tax of £6.3m (2005: £5.5m) increased by 13.4%.
  
  
• Earnings per share*: - Basic earnings per share up 31.2% to 9.18p (2005: 7.00p)
  
  - Diluted earnings per share up 27.7% to 8.77p (2005: 6.87p).
  
  
• Interim dividend increased 33.9% to 4.15p per share (2005: 3.10p).
  
  
• 21 new stores opened in the period (2005: 23 stores). No stores were closed (2005: nil) resulting in a total of 428 stores at the period end (2005: 380 stores).
  
  
• Like-for-like sales in 357 mature stores up 8.3% (2005: 8.4% in 317 stores). System sales increased 18.3% to £114.8m (2005: £97.1m).
  
  
• E-commerce sales up 46.9% to £9.6m (2005: £6.5m). E-commerce now represents 12.3% of our delivered pizza sales in the UK.
  
  
• Cash at bank and in hand of £8.6m (2005: £8.5m).
  
  * Before 2005 accelerated LTIP charge of £0.3m and exceptional profit on sale of corporate stores of £0.8m.
  
  Stephen Hemsley, Chief Executive of Domino's Pizza UK & IRL plc, commented:
  
  "The focus of your Group in the first twenty-six weeks of 2006 has continued to be the roll-out of the Domino's Pizza system in the UK and Ireland. This has seen us further extend our market leadership in the fast-growing pizza delivery segment both in terms of the number of stores and total system sales. Five of the top ten most successful Domino's Pizza stores in the world, as measured by system sales performance, are now within the markets we manage.
  
  "Like-for-like sales in the 357 mature stores grew by 8.3% and e-commerce channels continue to perform very well. The strong cash generation of your Group, and the anticipated completion of a capital re-organisation, should allow for further share buybacks in the second half. We are confident that earnings will meet market expectations for the year."