Domino's doubles down on fried chicken as new boss bets on delivery add-ons
The pizza chain's new 'chick'n'dip' range helped deliver a surprise sales jump, reviving a strategy that cost the previous chief executive his job.
Domino's Pizza has signalled it is pressing ahead with a fried chicken expansion that contributed to the departure of its last chief executive, after a new poultry range helped drive a stronger-than-expected sales performance.
The FTSE 250 group said like-for-like sales rose 5% in the latest quarter, comfortably ahead of the 3% analysts had forecast. Chief executive Nicola Frampton, who was confirmed in the role in March after a stint as interim boss, credited the "chick'n'dip" launch and a World Cup boost for the beat.
The Rennie precedent
The strategy has a recent and turbulent history. In November, former boss Andrew Rennie told the Financial Times that British consumers were approaching "peak pizza" and that chicken, the world's fastest-growing protein, was the obvious adjacent market. Days later he left by "mutual agreement", with the board pledging a more "disciplined" growth approach and putting a potential fried chicken acquisition on ice. A year earlier, Domino's had lost a bid for US chain Wingstop to investment firm Sixth Street.
Low-risk entry
Frampton's pitch to investors on Tuesday centred on capital efficiency. "Chicken is a large adjacent category. We can enter it using our existing system rather than building a new one, and we can do that without significant additional capital investment," she said. The company is targeting the £3bn UK fried chicken delivery segment, where it currently holds a 4% share, and sees "significant headroom" for growth.
That logic has won cautious backing. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the early signs are "encouraging" though the market's capacity remains a question. UK out-of-home fried chicken sales have surged nearly £700m to £2bn between 2022 and 2025, according to Worldpanel. Wingstop alone posted a 73% revenue jump to £216m last year and opened its 100th UK site on Monday. Popeyes operates about 100 venues and aims for 350; Slim Chickens targets 50 sites. Even Greggs has added a chicken sausage roll, while KFC is investing £1.5bn to add 500 restaurants across the UK and Ireland.
"The risk isn't too much chicken, it's too much chicken bought at the wrong rent. Adding it to an existing menu costs you very little if it fails."
Adam Vettesse, analyst at eToro, argued the "peak pizza" narrative was always about oversupply from weak operators, not fading demand. The same dynamic, he said, will likely play out in chicken, but Domino's avoids the property trap by layering the product onto its current network.
What comes next
Frampton has ruled out competing with dine-in operators, framing the push purely as an attachment to pizza orders. Whether that insulates Domino's from a saturated high street remains to be seen. For now, the sales data suggests British appetites for delivered chicken are still growing, and the company's second attempt at the category is off to a stronger start than its first.
