World meat industry news

 The company which runs the Domino’s Pizza brand in Russia and Turkey, DP Eurasia, reported a rise in its 2019 core profit, but declined to provide an outlook for this year given the uncertainty about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.

Last week, the firm had to close its restaurants in both Russia and Turkey following authorities’ orders aimed at containing the spread of the virus and as a result total sales fell by 10-15% over that period, company executives said.

However, delivery sales have not been affected, they added. DP Eurasia said it started contactless delivery last week and has not experienced any supply or transportation problems so far.

“In the year to date, the pandemic has had a relatively small impact on the business with the exception of a reduction in dine in business in our Turkish restaurants,” the company said in a statement.

The London-listed company reported adjusted net income, excluding IFRS 16 effects, of 3.2 million lira after an adjusted net loss of 7.1 million lira in 2018.

Commenting on its performance in Russia, where like-for-like sales dropped in 2019 due to intensifying competition, DP Eurasia said it resolved issues with regional franchisees by acquiring and converting their stores to corporate ones.

In the medium term, the company has been targeting low to mid-teens percentage like-for-like growth in Russia and 40 to 60 new stores per year.