ANN ARBOR Mich. Domino’s Pizza Inc. reported Tuesday a surge in second-quarter profit from year-earlier earnings that were sunk by one-time costs related to a recapitalization.
For the quarter ended June 15, profit totaled $18.7 million, or 32 cents per share, up from $2.3 million, or 4 cents a share, posted a year ago. Domino’s undertook a recapitalization a year ago and booked charges of 24 cents per share from higher interest expenses and legal fees.
Excluding those charges, and factoring out one-time charges in the latest quarter that included gains from the sale of corporate restaurants, Domino’s per-share earnings would have fallen to 22 cents per share from 28 cents per share a year earlier.
Latest-quarter sales fell nearly 2 percent to $334.3 million from $340.3 million, hurt mostly by weakened domestic operations. The pizza delivery chain posted a 5.4-percent drop in U.S. same-store sales for its second quarter.
David Brandon, chairman and chief executive, blamed “the external environment” for difficulty in reaching the company goal of a return to positive U.S. same-store sales.
“We are in a turnaround mode, which is not fun,” he said in a statement. “However, we see a light at the end of the tunnel, and we plan to be growing our domestic business again soon.”
Brandon said he expects new products, technology innovations, cost savings in the supply chain and improvements in the franchisee base to help the 8,671-unit chain regain positive momentum.
Same-store sales at international locations rose 7 percent for the quarter.