Domino’s Pizza Enterprises CEO and MD Don Meij has exited the business after clocking up nearly 40 years with the pizza chain, 22 of those years as CEO.
Jack Cowin, Domino’s chair and largest shareholder with a 26 per cent stake in the business, told the AFR the departure was “an amicable decision”. Cowin also told the masthead he intends to increase his shareholding.
Former Coca-Cola and Compass Group executive Mark Van Dyck takes up the $1.5m CEO role today.
Meij will continue to work with the board and van Dyck for the next 12 months.
Don Meij turned the business into a global operation
While Van Dyck brings international corporate experience to the Domino’s CEO role, Meij famously started his stellar career at the pizza chain as a delivery driver before becoming a multi-unit franchisee and then shifting into corporate roles.
“When I started as a delivery driver in Redcliffe, Queensland, I never imagined I’d become CEO of a truly global company with more than $4 billion in sales,” said Meij.
Cowin said “Under his leadership Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd grew from a Brisbane-based company to a truly global business – the market-leader in each of the markets the company has operated for more than three years in Europe and the Asia Pacific.”
Trading challenges
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises has 3,700 stores in 12 markets: Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia.
However, post-Covid-19 the business has struggled to maintain its previous form and has issued four profit downgrades in three years.
The business announced yesterday a FY25 trading update for the first 17 weeks of trade. Group same store sales are down 1.2 per cent.
Australia, Singapore and Taiwan saw sales growth. German sales remain negative but have improved from the August trading update, while the spotlight is on a much-needed turnaround of sales in France and Japan.
Who is the new CEO?
The company conducted a global search for the new group CEO.
Van Dyck brings transformation leadership skills, operational excellence, the ability to leverage high-performing teams and a track record in embedding sustainability and ESG into business strategy.
Van Dyck served on the executive board of Compass Group, a food services business with a market capitalisation of $79 billion and operations across 33 countries. in his most recent role as regional managing director, Asia Pacific, he oversaw 66,000 employees in 11 countries.
