Domino’s launches new chicken brand across the UK: Domino’s Pizza Group is pushing into the booming fried chicken market as the company seeks to diversify beyond pizza amid mounting pressure from activist investors. The company will unveil its Chick ’N’ Dip offering at 187 stores in the northwest of England and Northern Ireland. The range has been developed to work with the ovens in Domino’s existing kitchens, allowing the company to make use of its current infrastructure. Andrew Rennie, the group’s chief executive, believes this gives Domino’s a significant advantage over American chicken brands expanding into the UK market. “We’ve got better distribution than anyone and we have better delivery times compared to everyone by a country mile, plus we’ve got a quality product to offer,” he said. “We can cover the whole country overnight. We have a massive head start because of our size.” In the UK, the fried chicken market is estimated to be worth £3.1bn, driven by the expansion by established players such as KFC and newer entrants like Popeyes and Wingstop. Chick ’N’ Dip has been in development for more than a year, and Domino’s hopes to fine tune the new brand during its regional trial before bringing it to the rest of its 1,381 stores next year. The brand will offer a range of chicken tenders, wings and boneless bites, paired with a range of nine dips. Rennie said: “Chick ‘N’ Dip is a bold new chapter for Domino’s. By creating a dedicated concept that combines globally-inspired flavours with high quality chicken, we’re opening up a significant growth opportunity for our UK & Ireland business. This fantastic new product, millions of loyal customers and our trusted delivery model, is why we believe Chick ‘N’ Dip has the potential to be a powerful new growth lever for our business. Pizza is still a growing market and we have been growing our market share within that. But we have spent the past two years speaking to consumers and testing this potential proposition because there is clearly demand from customers and franchisees for this. Chicken is absolutely on trend and that is not going away – it’s a great source of protein and we have really strong products.” The rollout comes during a challenging period for the company, which was forced to trim this year’s profit guidance amid weak consumer confidence and higher employment costs. Domino’s now expects underlying adjusted profit for the year to the end of December to come in between £130m and £140m, down from a previous range of £140.8m and £149.7m. Rennie stressed that Chick ’N’ Dip does not signal a retreat from Domino’s broader acquisition ambitions. “We would like a second brand simply because we have this massive infrastructure and we have all this knowledge, the people, the customer base, the delivery drivers and all these amazing franchisees to help us launch another brand,” he said. “I think the launch of Chick ’N’ Dip is going to give people more confidence that we have the right and ability to do that.” One of Domino’s biggest shareholders recently called on it to halt its plans to acquire a second brand and to return £100m to investors, days before the group launched a £20m share buyback. Browning West, an activist investor with a 5% stake in Domino’s, wrote to its board saying it had “significant reservations” regarding the group’s multi-brand strategy.
Premium Club subscribers to receive two updated databases this week: Premium Club subscribers will receive two updated databases this week. They will receive the next
UK Food & Beverage Franchisor Database on Wednesday (10 September), featuring 14 new entries, while four brands no longer trading in the UK have been removed. This brings the total number of featured companies to 370, with more than 213,000 words of content. Among the new additions are
Ambala Foods, a leading manufacturer and retailer of Asian sweets; Bristol creperie
Chez Marcel; US international ice cream parlour brand
Cold Stone Creamery; South Korean coffee house company
Compose Coffee; and
Crispy Dosa, whose restaurants specialise in south Indian cuisine. The next
Turnover & Profits Blue Book will then be sent on Friday (12 September), at 12pm. The database will feature 72 updated accounts and 12 new companies, taking the total to 1,163. A total of 738 companies are making a profit while 425 are making a loss. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to four other databases: the
Multi-Site Database, the
New Openings Database, the
UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database and the
Who’s Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier.
Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.
Dodo Pub Company reports group sales up 14% year-on-year in 2025 as it opens tenth site, pipeline looks ‘encouraging’: Dodo Pub Company has told Propel that group sales are up 14% year-on-year in 2025 and its pipeline looks “encouraging” as it opened its tenth pub, in Newbury, Berkshire. The company has relaunched The Cross Keys, located in London Road, which it acquired earlier this year, as The High Horse. Following the refurbishment, the kitchen is serving slow-rise Neapolitan pizzas and burgers and will be launching Sunday roasts later in the year. Co-founder Fred Samengo-Turner said: “We’ve been looking for the right pub in Newbury for a while, and when the Cross Keys became available it felt like the perfect fit. There’s a real sense of community here and we’re excited to become part of it.” Dodo Pub Co began in 2009 when Samengo-Turner and friends Chris Manners, Leo Johnson and Andy Holland opened their first pub in Oxford. Since then, the group has grown into a small independent company with sites also in Bristol, Cheltenham, Caversham and Witney. Marketing manager Sarah Evans told Propel: “The pipeline looks encouraging, with a number of opportunities coming to market in recent months that we’re reviewing. A key challenge right now is recruitment and retention – finding and keeping great people remains a pressure point across the industry. Our ambition remains steady at two to three openings a year.”
Businesses to push against workers’ rights bill after Rayner exit: Business will launch a fresh push to water down Labour’s workers’ rights law, as No 10 insisted Sir Keir Starmer would press ahead with the reforms despite Angela Rayner’s resignation. The former deputy prime minister was the main champion in government of an Employment Rights Bill, which gives workers a host of new protections but has caused huge nervousness among business leaders who fear it will damage growth. Some employers’ groups now hope that Rayner’s departure will mean softening of the bill as it finishes its passage through parliament, reports The Times. Justin Madders, the employment rights minister overseeing the reforms, was also sacked during a wider reshuffle. No 10 sources insisted Starmer remained committed to the bill, and he is understood to have assured union leaders last week that it would go ahead as planned. Peter Kyle, the new business secretary, is said to have told unions on taking the job that he was not planning to water down the reforms, while John Healey, the defence secretary, has insisted there would be no rowing back on the package. The Federation of Small Businesses said: “All new ministers need to do to show they’ve moved on from the anti-jobs, anti-business agenda is to accept the crucial amendments already made by the Lords, particularly around the six-month qualifying period needed to give new workers, and new jobs, a chance. We hope the absolute refusal to work constructively with business on the bill is at an end”. Another business source said it was too soon to know whether the bill would change but signalled that lobbying groups would make a fresh attempt to convince new ministers as the bill returns to the Commons later this month. Under the bill, workers will get protection against unfair dismissal and sick pay from day one, and a default right to flexible working and parental leave. Those on zero-hour contracts will be offered guaranteed hours, and trade unions will gain a host of new rights to organise and strike.
