Domino's Pizza CEO to Step Down in July

Services

Published: January 10, 2018 12:05 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:37 am

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) shares took a step back on Wednesday after it was announced that the company’s long-standing chief executive officer would be leaving the company. CEO Patrick Doyle has headed up the pizza chain since March 2010, and the company saw explosive growth under his watch.

When Doyle took over in 2010 the stock was right around $15 per share. Now the share price is at $197 — let that sink in for a second. Also, in just the past 52 weeks alone the stock is up 25%.

Doyle will be stepping down from his role as CEO in July of 2018, and he will be replaced by Richard Allison, who is currently the president of Domino’s International. Domino’s is further shuffling the deck, promoting Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, to the newly created role of chief operating officer of Domino’s and president of the Americas.

Doyle commented:

One of the great honors and opportunities of my professional life was being named CEO of this incredible brand in early 2010. At that time, I set three goals for myself: I wanted us to become the #1 pizza company in the world; I wanted Domino’s to provide our franchisees with the best possible return on their investment by creating a dramatically better experience for our customers; and I wanted to have a Leadership Team in place that would be ready to create even better results into the future. I’m proud to say that we’ve accomplished all of those goals, and I will leave Domino’s knowing that it is in great hands.

Domino’s board chair, David Brandon, added:

Patrick excelled at every role he served at Domino’s for more than 20 years and during the past eight, he distinguished himself as one of the best leaders in the restaurant industry. Under his leadership, the brand opened more than 5,500 stores, launched in more than a dozen new countries, and Domino’s became one of the top-performing stocks of the decade. As important, though, is the fact that he developed an outstanding leadership team, which has allowed the Board to select a successor from that team.

Shares of Domino’s traded down nearly 5% at $197.01 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $216.06 and a 52-week range of $164.32 to $221.58.