Bumper profits, pig’s blood and watermelon … what next for red hot Domino’s?
Domino’s share price has rocketed by 70 per cent this year and now sits above $140 a share after producing a standout profit result, but that’s not what got it global attention this week.
Domino's boss Don Meij has revealed a shakeup of its business (Photo: Crikey).
Instead, the Brisbane-based Domino’s became famous for watermelon, or more specifically its attempts to make a watermelon base pizza.
The company, whose stock price has rocketed by 70 per cent this year alone, is now valued at $12.4 billion as it moves to expand its operations in Asia and Europe.
But for all the hard work done to boost its presence in a social media-dominated market where peoples’ attention span is dictated by cat videos, it was a video of an attempt to make watermelon pizza that made the Australian operations globally notorious.
Newsweek, CNN, Fox News and even the Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show have featured the Australian attempt at a recipe which puts to shame the debate about pineapple on pizza.
Fallon commented that he would prefer the nuts and bolts option, linking the watermelon pizza to another story in the US where a Domino’s customer claimed she found nuts and bolts in her pizza (Domino’s in the US is a separate business).
Earlier this year Domino’s also bought out its Taiwanese counterpart where pig’s blood pizza was on the menu, so weird toppings are not new to the Queensland-based company, headed by Don Meij.
The watermelon idea came from UK cook Oliver Paterson so a Domino’s employee gave it a crack and it was shared on social media.
“Y’all keep asking us for a low carb option,” Domino’s Australia captioned the TikTok video of the recipe.
“It does look pretty good out of the oven (but) we think it might be an acquired taste,” it said.
At Domino’s, pizza is our passion and we are constantly experimenting with different toppings and bases in our development kitchen to see exactly what is pizzable!
A Domino’s spokesperson said the watermelon pizza came from its social media team.
“Unfortunately, not all experiments lead to ‘masterpizzas’. The watermelon pizza – while unique – tasted exactly how you would imagine… Like a slice of sweet, juicy watermelon with a thin layer of pepperoni pizza on top,” the spokesperson said.
“Both taste great separately… but let’s just say we won’t be combining the two on our menu anytime soon.
“If you ask us, the only fruit that belongs on pizza is pineapple.”
Despite the apparent taste lapse, the company was one of the star performers of the first week of the profit reporting season after reporting sales growth of more than 14 per cent.
But it’s price to earnings ratio, which measure the share price against its per-share earnings is sitting at 70 times, making it an expensive investment.
Another measure is one share is equal to more than nine large, home-delivered pizzas.
However, as one analyst pointed out, the company has been producing profit growth of 20 per cent a year as it expands into new markets.