Company History

Compared to some other companies that were part of the 100 largest ASX listed stocks, DMP had a relatively short history.

Domino’s Pizza was a brand name created and owned by Domino’s Inc, an US company that traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker of DPZ. The US-based Domino’s entered the Australia market in 1984 but eventually sold the local business to an Australian franchisee by the name of Chris Hendry in late 1980s. In the next couple of years, the local Domino’s master franchise changed hands a few times. By 1993, it was bought by Competitive Foods, the company behind the launch of the Hungry Jack’s chain in Australia and owner of the KFC franchises in WA and NT at the time. Prior to purchasing Domino’s, Competitive Foods was already a majority owner of Silvio’s Dial A Pizza, the company that first offered pizza delivery in Australia in the early 1980s. A few years after Competitive Foods took ownership of Domino’s, a decision was made to convert approximately 60 Silvio’s Dial A Pizza outlets to Domino’s.[1]

The key to Domino’s Australia success under the ownership of Competitive Foods was two-fold. On the one hand, the company benefited from the US parent’s operating systems, brand name and store designs. On the other hand, the Silvio’s product range was customised for the local market. The Australian company was an exception where it was allowed to develop its own products and marketing strategy including the “wobble boards”, the signs Domino’s staff waved on the roads.

Three years after Competitive Foods took over the Australian master franchise, Don Meij, a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Rockhampton, purchased his first Domino’s franchise. Prior to the purchase, Meij had worked for Silvio’s Dial A Pizza in various roles. Within 5 years, he owned 17 stores across the country.

In 2001, Don Meij and another franchise owner, Grant Bourke, reached an agreement to merge their stores and bought a quarter of Domino’s Australia. As part of the agreement, Meij took up the chief executive role of the company. The other major shareholder of the company at the time was Jack Cowin, who owned Competitive Foods through his family trust. Meij remained the CEO of Domino’s Australia until today while Jack Cowin was the company’s current chairman and Grant Bourke, a non-executive director. [2]

An important milestone for the company was the ASX listing in 2005 under the code DMP. The company become the first publicly listed Australian pizza company. The near two decades following the company listing was marked by an aggressive expansion strategy where the company progressively expanded in all Australian states, followed by New Zealand, Europe and Asia. The company was also well known for its effective use of technology in pizza ordering and delivery. Some notable technological achievements included an iPhone application in 2009, GSP driver tracker that allowed customers to track their orders from the store in 2015, voice ordering through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant in 2018 and 2019 respectively. One of the company’s latest technological advances is the New Pizza Chef application that used Augmented Reality to allow customers to customize their favourite pizza from endless flavour combinations.

2024 heralded challenges ahead for Domino’s. While post-Covid operating results in Australia and New Zealand were encouraging despite rising costs, the same could not be said for the Asian and European markets. Sales in France were struggling, and Domino’s online delivery platform struggled with making sense of apostrophes used regularly in French addresses. The anti-American sentiment was believed to explain weak results in Asia due to America’s involvement in the Middle East.

Navigating the company through a competitive environment characterised by rising costs and disappearing technological advantages would prove a test for Don Meij in his long reign as the company’s CEO.