Domino's India franchisee beats Q2 profit estimates as cheaper pizzas help demand

BENGALURU/CHENNAI (Reuters) -Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates Domino's restaurants in India, reported a smaller-than-expected 26% fall in quarterly earnings on Wednesday, helped by its move to cut costs and launch cheaper pizzas to attract consumers.

Consumer goods makers and restaurants in India have been launching more affordable products — with lower input costs — to keep customers coming back when they are cutting back on expenses due to the high cost of living.

The Indian franchisee of Domino's Pizza said its consolidated net profit fell to 972 million rupees ($11.69 million) for the second quarter ended Sept. 30 from 1.32 billion rupees a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, were expecting 772.2 million rupees, according to data from LSEG.

Jubilant, which also operates Dunkin' and Popeyes restaurants, earlier this year launched the world's cheapest pizza at 49 rupees and followed it up with the roll-out of a new range of spicy pizzas starting at 179 rupees.

It also cut costs, including in packaging.

"Deployment of multiple levers ... disciplined cost control more than offset cost inflation," Jubilant, which also runs Domino's stores in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, said in an investor presentation.

Revenue from operations climbed 5.2% to 13.69 billion rupees for the reported quarter.

Shares of Jubilant closed up 0.8% at 529.1 rupees on Wednesday.

($1 = 83.1533 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Sohini Goswami)