Fast-food chain Domino’s Pizza, which owns 48 outlets locally, has reported like-for-like sales in the Republic of Ireland for the first eight weeks of 2015 that were 4.8 per cent higher.

Domino’s recorded group sales that were up 14.6 per cent to £766.6 million for the period under review, compared to £668.8 million last year.

Underlying profit before tax for the UK and Ireland was up 14.3 per cent to £63.1 million as against £55.2 million a year earlier.

The group, which operates a global network of more than 11,000 stores in 70 markets, said it was pleased with its progress in Ireland and Switzerland, which both showed improvement.

Like-for-like sales in Switzerland were up 7.7 per cent in the first eight weeks of the year, while sales in the UK and Germany - the group’s other core European markets - rose by 9.5 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

Online system sales in the UK and Ireland increased by 30.2 per cent to £440 million with such sales now accounting for 69.4 per cent of all delivered sales in the region, compared to 61.5 per cent last year. Of this, 44.2 per cent of online orders were made through a mobile device, up by more than 14 per cent versus the same period in 2014.

"It has been another strong year for Domino's, particularly in our core UK market, confirming the strength of our customer offer. Both UK like-for-like sales and new store performance were excellent and this has largely been driven by our sector-leading e-commerce initiatives. Our renewed focus on franchisee profitability has also provided an impetus to continued growth," said chief executive David Wild.

“Outside the UK, we are pleased with progress in Ireland and Switzerland, both of which showed improvement. In Germany, there remains much work to do, but underlying losses have reduced, in the second half and we remain optimistic about the opportunity in this market,” he added.

During the period under review, 44 new stores opened across its core European markets with eight closures resulting in a total of 894 outlets across Ireland, the UK, Germany and Switzerland.