London, July 21, 2008: Britain's biggest pizza home delivery chain, Domino's Pizza, reported a 33 percent rise in first-half profits, as it benefited from customers saving money by choosing a takeaway meal rather than eating out.

The company, which operates the UK and Ireland franchise of the global brand, acknowledged it faces "very strong" comparatives in the second half but said it is confident of achieving further strong growth in sales and profits, and is well placed to exceed market expectations for the year.

"What we're seeing in these times is evidence of the consumer starting to trade down somewhat. They're under economic pressures and are starting to trade down from restaurants," Chief Financial Officer Lee Ginsberg told Reuters by telephone.

Domino's said pretax profit before exceptional items for the 26 weeks to June 29 was 10.9 million pounds ($21.7 million) compared with 8.2 million the year before. Sales at the company's 526 stores rose 19.5 percent to 170.2 million pounds, with like-for-like growth of 11.4 percent.

Domino's has ramped up its promotional activity this year with funds set aside for advertising lifted to 18 million pounds this year from 13.5 million the year before.

Part of that was used to sponsor the popular Saturday night TV show 'Britain's Got Talent', in addition to Domino's long-running sponsorship of 'The Simpsons'.

"That was very successful and helpful for us," said Ginsberg.

Domino's opened 25 new stores during the period, which it said are trading "very strongly", and is planning to open 50 more each year until it has 1,000 outlets in the UK and Ireland.

Shares in Domino's, which have outperformed the FTSE All Share Food Producers Index  by 44 percent in 2008, rose 1.3 percent to 199-1/4 pence by 0848 GMT.

Numis, which reiterated its 'buy' recommendation and 343 pence target price, lifted its 2008 pretax profit forecast to 22.3 million pounds from 22.1 million and left its 2009 pretax profit forecast of 25 million unchanged.

"If the first half trading momentum continues into the second half then we see scope for further 2008 and 2009 upgrades," said Numis analyst Richard Carter.

Analysts' forecasts for full-year pretax profit currently range between 21.9 and 23 million pounds with the consensus at 22.1 million, according to a Reuters poll of nine analysts.     

Domino's is proposing an interim dividend of 2.7 pence, up 42 percent.