Domino's Pizza creates 400 Northern Ireland jobs to cope with Euro 2016

Domino's Pizza is creating 1000 jobs across Ireland as part of a major recruitment drive ahead of the European Championship and the Olympic Games.

The move is part of plans to hire 10,000 new workers open more than 65 stores in the UK and Ireland this year as it gets set for an upsurge in demand, with three pizzas expected to be ordered every second during Euro 2016.

Chief executive David Wild said: “2016 is a bumper year for Domino’s, we have plans to open around 65 new stores and we’ll serve up over seven million pizzas during the Euros alone.”

The bulk of the jobs -1,900 positions - will be created in South East England, while 400 jobs will be created in Northern Ireland and a further 600 in the Republic.

Domino’s announced in March that rock bottom cheese prices had helped the fast food chain rack up double-digit profits last year.

The group, which has more than 869 stores in Britain, said pre-tax profits jumped 20% to £59.3 million in the year to December 27 compared with a year ago, helped by lower costs for fuel, wheat and ‘’a record-low cheese price’’.

It said it was able to save £11 million on food costs alone last year, primarily on cheese and dough.

The firm said in March that like-for-like sales hit 11.7% over the period, while its online operation now accounted for 77.7% of all sales from deliveries, up from 70.8% a year ago. Its app service now accounts for 48.6% of all online sales.

The group opened 61 stores in the UK last year, adding that its UK business had now produced nine successive quarters of double-digit like-for-like growth.

Apart from the UK business, Domino’s Pizza also owns the franchises in the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, as well as Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

Domino’s Euro 2016 facts

:: About 160 pizzas will be ordered every minute of every day during the tournament.

:: Pizzas sold during the tournament are expected to stretch the equivalent of more than 12,000 miles or more than 200,000 football pitches.

:: More than 50 million slices of pizza are expected to be eaten.

:: More than 5,000 Domino’s Pizza makers will create the pizzas.

:: More than seven million pizzas will be made for people watching Euro 2016.