Domino’s exec chair and billionaire Jack Cowin reveals rift over strategy led to CEO Mark van Dyck’s exit

In a candid investor update, billionaire Domino’s executive chair Jack Cowin listed the problems facing the pizza maker and the fundamental issue he and Mark van Dyck could not see eye-to-eye on.

Domino's executive chairman Jack Cowin is demanding faster changes at Domino’s.

Domino’s executive chair and billionaire Jack Cowin has blamed a rift between his outgoing chief executive and the board over the pace of change required to restore the pizza maker’s fortunes for the shock resignation of its new boss after just seven months in the job.

Mr Cowin, who is also the largest Domino’s shareholder as well as the founder and owner of rival Hungry Jack’s, revealed in an investor update late Thursday that while the board had agreed to a five-year plan presented by Mark van Dyck, directors demanded a faster reset after years of “unacceptable” performance.

Mr Cowin, in a candid Q&A with analysts, also admitted that Domino’s had grown too fast, opened too many stores and expanded overseas too quickly. Now, the business needed to shift some of the decision making outside of its Brisbane headquarters closer to the hundreds of stores dotted across Europe, Japan and Asia.

Costs needed to be reined in too, sales growth had to be returned to at least 3 per cent, and franchisees needed to make more money as Domino’s is confronted with a rapidly changing fast-food market, according to its chairman.

Domino's Pizza outgoing CEO Mark van Dyck.

Given the massive overhaul required of the pizza business - which has more than 3,700 stores spread across 11 countries - Mr van Dyck couldn’t commit to the work and travel needed and decided to walk away, Mr Cowin told analysts. Mr van Dyck did not participate in the meeting, but remains with the company until December.

Mr Cowin has seen the value of his own shares in Domino’s crash by $3bn since the stock’s peak in 2021, and on Thursday demanded better performance by the company as “custodians of other people’s money”.

“This was Mark’s decision to resign, he was not pushed, he made the decision to leave it, I think the reality is he put together the strategy which has been accepted,” Mr Cowin said.

On Wednesday, Domino’s stunned the market with its new succession challenge, forcing the ASX-listed pizza company to search for its third CEO in a year.

At the heart of the shake-up is a disagreement between Mr van Dyck and the board over the speed Domino’s was moving to fix its many issues from poorly incentivised franchisees and bad menu choices, to loss-making stores and excessive business costs.

Hungry Jack's founder and Domino’s executive chair Jack Cowin has called Domino’s performance over the last four years as ‘unacceptable’.

“This is probably a question you have to direct to Mark but... Putting the plan together is one thing, getting the traction in the field is another and there is a lot of work to be done and I think he made the assessment that cost reductions, travel in these different markets, is not easy so he decided to resign so that is where we stand.”

Years of flat sales was “unacceptable” Mr Cowin declared, seeking better returns for franchise owners, higher earnings and improved rewards for shareholders.

“We’ve had flat results going into the fourth year which is unacceptable. What we require is change … and the best way to get there is if we can successfully get sales growth going,” he told the analyst meeting convened on Zoom.

“To make this business successful we have to have growth and we have to do it now rather than on a long-term basis, so then the issue is how quickly can we get this done and get costs inline with regard to what we need to make the business profitable.”

Jack Cowin wants a faster pace of change at Domino’s to arrest its poor performance. Picture: Nikki Short

Pushed on whether the quantum of cost cutting could have hurt more than helped the business, Mr Cowin simply said the board supported Mr van Dyck’s plan.

“His plan, which he put together, was a five-year plan and there was nothing wrong with it, we agreed with the plan, but I think there was an area of where the board wanted to do it differently. It was the pace and that is the difference.

“I think Mark would have taken the position that this is a lot of hard work to do today. If we had a common philosophy it would be what had to be done, the difference is how do we do it quickly.”

Mr Cowin, who owns around 25 per cent of Domino’s and has made his fortune in fast food, was fully behind the Domino’s business and disagreed with outside commentary asserting that the company was in “disarray”.

“I have great faith in this business that it is solid. This business is solid. This company is not in disarray.”

But he added the caveat there was “no silver bullet”.

Jarden analyst Ben Gilbert raised his concerns Domino’s would suffer “death by a thousand cuts” on the call, and that the board keeps “kicking the can down the road” which could plague the company for another 12 months as it searches for a new CEO.