Global Brands Share News (GBR)

Attracting new franchise candidates to manage Domino's Pizza outlets has been more difficult than expected, Global Brands, the company seeking to roll out the pizza delivery chain in Switzerland, has admitted.Sales in the quarter to 30 September were up by just 2.6% from the same period the previous year at CHF3.43m (£2.42m), a much lower growth rate than the 11.1% growth recorded over the nine months to 30 September."Attracting new franchise candidates to the business has been slower than originally expected," the company said. It also said that there have been delays in the conversion of a "Pizza Taxi" store and that it had decided not to convert a third Pizza Taxi outlet into a Domino's.Sales in the west of Switzerland were down by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis, while sales in the east climbed by 1%."Early indications for Q4 are that trading conditions in the West remain demanding as we continue to see the impact of the strong Swiss Franc on our sector of the Geneva economy," the company said. "However, we are seeing strong growth in the East with double digit like-for-like corporate sales growth thus far in October."---RG