The humble pizza has been judged, and quite rightly so, the comfort food of the pandemic.
In America, over the first nine months of 2020, the combined revenue of Domino’s and Papa John’s grew so much that it was roughly equivalent to their selling about 30 million more large cheese pizzas than they had the year before.
Sales of pizza grew as much as 4% last year, according to Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm. Pizza and chicken are the only foods categories expected to have grown. It may have also become a go-to meal for families in urban setups that found themselves on a tight budget because of falling wages or lost jobs.
According to a report by New York Times, as demand soared during the pandemic, Domino’s rushed to hire 30,000 people; ramped up its production of the dough that is sent to all of its locations; and faced occasional shortages of ingredients as meat producers shut down because of coronavirus outbreaks in their facilities. Television commercials, which normally take months to plan and shoot, were reshot in a matter of days so they could feature drivers wearing masks as they made deliveries.
The pandemic has been devastating to the restaurant industry overall. Therefore, in order to capitaise the trend many eateries started including Pizzas in their menu.
According to a report by Fortune, Domino’s had the biggest slice of the U.S. market coming into the pandemic. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, last year Domino’s captured 19% of total pizza sales in the U.S. thanks to its dominance in delivery. The company gobbled up a whopping 36% of U.S. delivery sales in 2019 versus a combined total of 26% for other major chains. (Regional chains and independent restaurants garnered 38%.)
As with its pizza peers, the company’s sales have spiked in recent months. In July, Domino’s reported that its U.S. same-store sales increased by 16% in the second quarter of 2020 and earnings per share leapt to USD 2.99 from USD 2.19 in the same quarter last year. Domino’s generated $240 million in net income through the first half of 2020, a 30% increase over last year, despite slower growth in international markets.
Shareholders of Domino’s have been well rewarded. Through the first week of August, the pizza giant’s stock was up 24% in 2020. And that’s on top of years of strong returns. Over the past three years, Domino’s stock has risen 99%—easily outpacing its pizza peers.
The report by Fortune said that Domino’s was uniquely positioned to meet consumers’ increased demand for pepperoni-and-cheese–topped comfort food thanks to its commitment to innovation over the past several years.
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