IF you want to get ahead in a downturn, get a pizza. That seemed to be the
message last week when, in the midst of some pretty miserable trading
figures from retailers, one set of numbers stood out. Domino’s Pizza, the
franchised delivery chain, is seeing surging sales. Nice start for its
charismatic new boss, Chris Moore. Or is it?
“Maybe you’ve got a point,” says Moore, pulling a face of mock alarm. A 17.6%
jump in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to December 30? How can he
improve on that?
Probably with ease, if the forecasters have got it right. Domino’s, so the
logic goes, is a classic counter-cyclical business. When times get bad,
people hunker down over some bought-in comfort food.
Moore nods. “Yeah, part of it may be people eating out less: instead of three
times a week, maybe once a week, then ordering in at home more. But it’s too
early to tell.”
Sitting in his corner office at Domino’s industrial park base in Milton
Keynes, Moore, 48, seems happy to talk the froth off last week’s excited
coverage. Tall and thickset, dressed in black, with a wispy beard under
floppy hair, he looks like an ageing rocker, not a pizza king, even though
he’s an 18-year Domino’s man.
Born in Weymouth, brought up partly in Brazil, Moore spent a decade in
advertising before joining Domino’s European operation while it was still
run by an American parent. In 1993 the UK side was bought by business-men
Colin and Gerry Halpern, operating with a “master franchise”, and then
listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 1999. Now it’s Britain’s No 1
pizza-delivery brand.
And, as Moore points out, the success of Domino’s – famed for its endless
create-your-own-pizza variations – shouldn’t surprise anyone. It announced a
£14m profit on £240m sales in 2006, and will hit nearly £300m sales for
2007. It is continually building momentum.
With 501 outlets in the UK and Ireland, and 1,000 targeted by 2017, its
principles are simple: get a hot pizza with fresh ingredients to buyers
within 30 minutes of ordering, and keep finding new places to trade. But its
business is rather more complex, with the British company dancing carefully
between its American franchise owner and its local franchisees, many of whom
run more than one site.
Even so, it is, by any definition, one of the most successful franchise
operations in the country, taking 5.5% of weekly sales from its franchisees,
paying nearly half of that to America, then taking another 5% to plough back
in to marketing and support. Other fees are taken for training and property
services.
It is also, to some, a controversial business, lambasted by the BBC’s
Newsnight programme last year for its outlets’ ruthless exploitation of
casual staff.
Domino’s shrugged off the allegations, which involved a franchisee deducting
so many expenses from employees’ wages that they were paid almost nothing.
But it promised to monitor its outlets more closely. Did the coverage dent
sales?
Moore raises his eyebrows. “We had our best month of the year in July, when
Newsnight ran,” he says, then adds mischievously, “but you can’t put that
down to the BBC.” Is he taking it seriously enough?
Moore drops the smile. Yes, he says, it showed Domino’s had to sharpen its
act.
“Our payroll documentation and HR documentation generally needed a refurb.
There had been multiple increases in the minimum wage and stores needed more
support to get in line with the new legislation.”
And in retrospect, he says, it proved a positive experience, not least in the
anger it generated among other franchisees. That reaction sent out a
message.
“We have seen over 30 franchisees out the door for a number of reasons over
the past two years,” says Moore, suddenly terse. “If you are screwing
around, you are playing with fire.” Moore has run operations for two years
as deputy chief executive, and in marketing before that. Others describe him
as “the energy behind the business”, and accomplished at bonding franchisees
to the firm.
He takes over the top slot from former banker Stephen Hemsley, who headed the
business for six years, and now remains as chairman. That consistency of
management, says Moore, has been the key to Domino’s success, in particular
its partnership with franchisees.
“It’s about relationships between people,” he says, “if you’ve got people
changing every couple of years it won’t work.”
That partnership with franchisees is secured through dialogue, support and
bonding, with a degree of levity that might surprise some. Moore – an
extrovert who really should have been a rock star, according to one friend –
even does a nice line in cross-dressing for Domino functions.
He was Marilyn Monroe – white dress, stilettos, evening gloves and hairy legs
– at a recent awards do. He dressed up as the Queen at an American Domino
event.
Is he bonkers? No, laughs Moore, he just thinks business should be fun, and
franchisees enjoy it. Those Brazilian roots – his family lived there from
the 1970s, and he has a Brazilian wife – probably give him a bit more
carnival spirit than the rest of us.
But his marketing nous is not in question. Moore secured for Domino’s a vital
UK television sponsorship of The Simpsons cartoon series from 1998, which
hit the 18 to 35-year-old demographic bang-on. The consequent surge in sales
every evening became known as the “Simpsons rush” in Domino’s outlets.
Moore plays it down, but colleagues suggest he’s shrewder than he sometimes
pretends. “Chris has a real vision for the brand, and a feel for the
Domino’s culture,” says Hemsley. “The business is now at a real turning
point.”
Part of that stems from the rise in internet sales, another Moore initiative.
He says he wants Domino’s to be the standard-bearer for pizza online. “At
the moment we take 20% of sales online; we think that could double by 2015.”
Who’s buying? That target demographic of 18 to 35-year-olds, for sure, though
many think students take a pretty big chunk of it. Moore argues that,
actually, a lot of students opt for cheaper rivals – after all, Domino’s top
seller, Pepperoni Passion, costs over £13 for a 13½in pizza.
“Students will get £6 pizzas from other firms,” shrugs Moore, “but they’ll
taste the cost-cutting. It’s really difficult to make money at that price,
and you can bet the firms are paying people off-book. We are a premium
product and service.”
Is he worried about making the nation fatter? No, he says, because Domino’s is
not a fast food. “It’s a meal replacement that people order on average every
five weeks, so please tell me where we fit within the fast-food debate? Yes,
we are delivering great food fast, but don’t give us that tag, it pisses us
off.”
Then he lists the staple ingredients: fresh dough, 100% mozzarella,
vine-ripened tomatoes, no MSG, no GM. “Look at the other brands and compare
the make-up of their products with ours – McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut
. . .” So why doesn’t he advertise that?
“Because three years ago people didn’t give a damn, and now they do. Watch
this space.That intensity of purpose can sometimesurprise. Mark Chippendale,
media director at News Group who was at Sky when Moore cut the Simpsons
deal, says you cannot underestimate the Domino’s boss’s passion, or his
temper.
“Don’t think for a minute that, behind the self-deprecating wit, Chris isn’t
deadly serious. And when he flies off on one, he seriously flies.”
Moore says he loves the speed of Domino’s, where you can see the instant
effects of marketing initiatives. He got a taste for that working in
advertising in Brazil, part of the team that handled the McDonald’s account
in the early 1980s.
Moore’s Anglo-Spanish father, a former Royal Navy submariner who worked for the
engineering group Ferranti, was out there advising the Brazilian navy.
Moore, the youngest of four sons, had joined him at 17, intent on a long
holiday. He stayed for 10 years, selling English lessons, running clubs,
doing rock promotion, and eventually advertising.
That entrepreneurial start is the key to Moore’s idiosyncratic style. The
McCann ad agency brought him back to London, but later, at Lintas, he
decided he’d had enough of the research-heavy approach of clients. “So much
bullshit. We were working on new variants of Lynx and what to call it. I
suggested Java. They said ‘great name!’ I said ‘yeah, it stands
for Just Another Variant, Arsehole’.”
He left to join Domino’s shortly afterwards. “I thought hallelujah! You don’t
have to wait for Nielsen to send you data before you do something.”
He’ll need that gritty drive to keep Domino’s pushing on. His team won’t take
on other franchise ideas, or look overseas. The UK, now the fastest-growing
territory in the Domino’s global empire, is work enough. It boasts nine of
the 10 top Domino stores outside America, including the busiest one in the
world.
Where? “Not telling you,” says Moore. “I don’t want to throw up too many flags
for the competition.”
Likewise he is reluctant to share any photos of his cross-dressing triumphs.
Oh come on – they’ve been in the staff mag. Is he toning down his act now
he’s chief executive? I’d be happy to illustrate this piece with either
Monroe or the Queen . . .
“Not forgetting Lieutenant Uhura,” he says, deadpan.
What? He laughs. He’s clearly a man with range. Let’s hope, now he’s in the
driving seat, it doesn’t cramp his style too much.
CHRIS MOORE’S WORKING DAY
THE new chief executive of Domino’s Pizza wakes before 7am at his home outside
Towcester and takes a run with his jack russell for exercise. Then Chris
Moore works on his e-mails before driving into Domino’s base in Milton
Keynes for a 9.30 start. “The average day is meetings with franchisees about
development plans, then lunch al desko,” says Moore. “Or there’ll be
discussions with franchisees about operations that are not looking that
good.” He has seven executives reporting directly to him. Moore leaves for
home after 7pm. Every Friday, his family eat Domino’s. Favourite pizza?
“Easy, Pepperoni Passion.”
VITAL STATISTICS
Born:June 15, 1959
Marital status:married, with three children
School:King’s College, Taunton
University:none
First job:selling door-to-door English lessons in Brazil
Salary package:£280,000
Home:Towcester, Northamptonshire
Car:bronze Mercedes CLS
Favourite book:The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Favourite music:anything Brazilian Favourite film:Cabaret
Favourite gadget:Apple Mac mini
Last holiday:Brazil
DOWNTIME
CHRIS MOORE has only one hobby: music. “I have been working on getting an
album together for years. I like writing music, on guitar and piano. My
influences are the Brazilian musician Djavan and Sting. It’s sort of
progressive/Latin/ballads – you can’t put a tag on it. I have been recording
using Garageband on my Apple Mac. It’s superb.” He says he doesn’t spend his
money on much. Even his home is rented. “We had a house in London, but
rented when we moved up to Northamptonshire five years ago, and it’s such a
nice house we’ve stayed ever since. It means I don’t have to do the
gardening.”
