New Domino’s Australia boss ‘gets nerdy’ and goes back to basics

Improving Australia’s biggest pizza chain from the inside out will be the legacy of Domino’s Pizza’s new chief executive officer Kerri Hayman, as the business hopes to convince investors it is firmly back on a path of growth.

Hayman, who started with the business 36 years ago as a pizza maker and last week took over the top job from her brother, group CEO and managing director Don Meij, signalled her intention to invest in training store workers to instil a culture of “obsession” with quality and boost pizza sales.

Don Meij’s sister Kerri Hayman is the new chief executive of Domino’s Pizza, Australia and New Zealand.

“When you have an obsession with the basics on making a great product, you’re going to do well. When you focus on your team members and get them to fall in love with the job, you’re going to do well,” she said.

”We get really nerdy with the things that we do in store. A simple thing like putting sauce on a pizza, how hard can that be? Well, looking at the tool we use to do that and making it easy for the team member to use, make it a training tool … There’s a lot that goes into it, more than what you probably think.“

Hayman started working at Domino’s in 1988 alongside her brother Meij, who was a store manager at the time.

She worked her way up to state manager before spending a few years in the UK as a senior operations executive, and nine years in the US as a franchisee of 14 stores before returning to the Australian business as chief operating officer in October 2023.

Franchisee profitability is a key priority for the new chief, who is ramping up training programs and wants to celebrate high-performing store workers. During Hayman’s 11 months as chief operating officer, customer satisfaction and product quality scores have improved to their best levels in three years.

“Coming into the business, it’s a new lens, new eyes [on] things that we changed our focus [from] over time,” she said.

”Just that little bit of extra attention to detail, heightening it that little bit more, where customers are telling us that these are the best pizzas that I’ve had in a while, I’m really enjoying that. They’re coming to us, they’re ordering more often, which is obviously what we want.“

Domino’s is at pains to demonstrate it has turned the corner on a bumpy few years in the Australian and international markets. Meij was forced to slash 200 jobs and reverse a 6 per cent delivery fee that was unpopular with customers and sent profits tumbling.

Don Meij, the former CEO of Australia’s biggest pizza group, Domino’s.Credit: Jamila Toderas

Meanwhile, growth ambitions in France, Japan, Italy and Malaysia have not gone to plan, and earlier this year it was forced to reveal its fourth profit downgrade in three years.

However, in the 2024 fiscal year the ASX-listed pizza maker’s global sales rose 4.6 per cent to $4 billion, with a similar 4.5 per cent rise in earnings to $362.7 million. Net profit sank 1.9 per cent to $120.4 million.

The Australian business, which has nearly 900 stores, had a 10.4 per cent improvement in underlying earnings to $124.1 million, representing the strongest same store growth (7.9 per cent) in seven years. Average franchise store profitability has risen 6.7 per cent to $97,400.

After shuttering more than a dozen underperforming stores, the pizza chain is eyeing new store openings in the current financial year.

The European business’ underlying earnings rose 33.8 per cent to $70.7 million, with Germany performing well, while France underperformed. The company has announced a final dividend of 50.4¢ a share.

Investors appeared unimpressed with the results, sending the share price 1.4 per cent lower after see-sawing throughout the day. Domino’s share price has lost more than 44 per cent of its value since the beginning of the year.

InvestorHub co-chief Ben Williamson said the change of leadership was a “new opportunity for Domino’s to engage a fundamentally different market” to when Meij took over in 2002, pointing to the excitement generated by burrito maker Guzman y Gomez’ blockbuster ASX debut.

While he said Meij had done an excellent job at engaging shareholders with his direct, engaged and transparent leadership style, he questioned whether time was up on the “traditional” approach.

Guzman y Gomez went on the stock exchange for the first time in June.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“How is [Guzman y Gomez] valued almost the same as a company pulling profits almost 20 times larger? Quite simply: it has a better story in the market that is, crucially, driving a lot of investment from retail investors and advocacy from VCs,” Williamson said in a note.

“Meij’s approach may have made Domino’s a market darling up to 2021, but GYG’s fresh, energetic approach, along with a CEO who looks happier in a hoodie than a suit and tie, may represent a crucial lesson for businesses looking to excite investors going forward.”

While Hayman has spent nearly four decades in the Domino’s business, her career trajectory has not mimicked Meij’s, having spent more than a decade in the UK and US.

“We’re both massive Dominoids. We both love the brand,” she said. “We kind of have our own spaces that we exist in, but we grow at the same time, and we learned a lot off each other.”

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