Domino’s Pizza CEO talks weakness in its international business

In a Monday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Domino’s Pizza CEO Russell Weiner discussed weakened guidance the company gave last week for the global side of its business.

“When you’re in 90-plus markets around the world, you’re going to have some fits and starts,” Weiner said. “But the beauty is you have the other markets to, you know, round things out.”

Domino’s reported an earnings beat last week, but said it may fail to reach its target for international store growth by 175 to 275 stores. The company said this is largely due to weakness in Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, its largest international franchisee with stores that operate in Australia, New Zealand, France and the Netherlands, among other countries.

Weiner indicated on the company’s conference call that Domino’s will be “partnering closely with DPE as they work through this process.” He also told Cramer that Domino’s was seeing solid success in other international franchisees, including ones in China and India.

According to Weiner, Domino’s business in the U.S. is strong, and “value has never been higher,” with increased orders on “on our delivery business, carry out business, every single income segment.” Weiner also described how the company decides to launch new products, highlighting its most recent “New York Style” pizza.

“There are some people who don’t like Domino’s pizza. Why? They’re looking for something a little bit more thin,” Weiner said. “And so, this is a great product for those folks, and we’re bringing incremental eaters into Domino’s Pizza.”