London, Jan 7 - Britain's biggest pizza takeaway chain, Domino's Pizza UK & IRL Plc, said on Wednesday it is confident of delivering 2008 profits ahead of market expectations.
Analysts' forecasts for full-year pretax profit range between 22.3 and 23.2 million pounds, with the consensus at 22.6 million, according to a Reuters Estimates poll of ten analysts.
Domino's, which operates the UK and Ireland franchise of the global home delivery brand, said like-for-like sales increased by 10 percent in the year to Dec 28. For the 13 weeks to Dec 28, comparable sales rose by 8.6 percent.
Domino's, which is targeting a network of 1,000 stores in the UK and Ireland, said it exceeded its target of opening 50 stores a year in 2008, opening 52 new outlets to bring the total number to 553, and creating 1,500 jobs.
Total sales increased by 18.4 percent to 350.8 million pounds ($523.1 million).
Shares in Domino's Pizza have outperformed the FTSE All Share Food Producers Index by over 30 percent during the past 12 months, reflecting hopes the company will benefit from customers looking to save money by ordering in takeaways instead of eating out.