Domino’s Pizza Group has spent over £7 million stockpiling crucial ingredients including tomato sauce to insulate the firm from the damaging impact of a no-deal Brexit, with the firm’s anxieties about ingredient shortages having increased, the Guardian reports.
Domino’s buys flour and cheese in the UK, but the sauce used in its bases comes from Portugal - frozen chicken and all long-life ambient products, such as tuna and pineapple, are also being stockpiled.
All importers of perishable food would be deleteriously impacted by a no-deal departure - trade experts believe such an exit would cause delays at the border and increase the possibility of higher prices. Boris Johnson’s government has committed to leaving the EU on 31st October with or without a deal in place, panicking many businesses in the UK.
“A potential no-deal Brexit carries the increased risk of disruption to raw material supplies into the UK and foreign exchange volatility which could increase food costs,” Domino’s said on Tuesday.
The safeguarding exercise comes just as Domino’s struggles to find a new chief executive, as current head David Wild is due to resign following his failure to resolve a long-running dispute with franchise managers over profit distribution, and a failing attempt to expand the chain into continental Europe. Some franchisees have refused to open further stores until they are given a bigger share of proceeds.
Discussions with franchisees in the UK and Ireland are ongoing but there is little sign of resolution in the near future, causing delays to store openings among other operational issues.
Wild will step down once a successor is found, and the company’s board chair Stephen Hemsley will leave after managing the recruitment of Wild’s replacement. It’s expected his a successor will shake up the board once appointed.
