Domino’s (LON:DOM) announced on Tuesday that it no longer expects its international business to break even this year following a weak system sales performance and a first-quarter operating result below that of last year.

Domino’s, the UK’s leading pizza delivery business, said that group system sales were up 4.5%. Additionally, 11 stores were opened in the past year to date, 7 of these opening in the UK, bringing the group’s total to 1271.

Domino’s international system sales increased 1.1% in local currency, a performance which the group has labelled disappointing. The group has tightened its capital deployment and the immediate focus of the management team is on driving performance across the existing estate, amid a challenging market backdrop.

“With continued like-for-like growth, the year has started well across our core UK and Republic of Ireland markets, which account for 90% of our business. Our digital expertise remains a key driver of customer engagement, with online accounting for a record 81.7% of total sales in the UK. We remain in open and ongoing dialogue with our UK franchisees, actively exploring win-win solutions for stimulating growth and new store openings,” Chief Executive Officer David Wild commented.

“Internationally, performance remains disappointing and trading visibility is limited. As we outlined at the full year results, we have new management in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, and a heightened focus on store level performance. However, given persistently weak system sales in all our International markets we no longer expect this part of our business to break-even this year. We are therefore further tightening our focus on International costs and capital deployment. We will provide a further update at our first half results,” the Chief Executive Officer continued.

Earlier this year, Domino’s revealed that it expected its annual pre-tax profit to be at the lower end of its guidance. It highlighted the weakness of its international sales despite its strong UK performance.

Throughout last year the pizza delivery chain saw its sales continue to rise.

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