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A head of the UK's Domino's Pizza chain who suggested the United Kingdom might have hit maximum pizza demand while diversifying the company into poultry items has been ousted after tensions with its directors.

Leadership Transition

Rennie is exiting after a brief tenure in leadership, and will be succeeded on an acting basis by the organization's chief operating officer, Nicola Frampton, while the pizza giant looks for a long-term chief.

Rennie, who was with the company for more than two decades, had aimed to redirect the UK's leading pizza food delivery firm towards fried chicken, remarking in a recent interview there was not “massive growth” left in the pizza sector in the UK. He said poultry was the most rapidly expanding protein in the globe.

Governance Disagreements

Reports indicate that there was friction between Rennie and the governance team over his focus and direction, although the company's announcement said he was leaving “by mutual agreement”.

New Brand Introduction

In the autumn, the chain launched its chicken-focused product line – which the former chief described as a “bold new chapter” for the group – and is testing it in over 200 locations in the North West region and Northern Ireland.

While the company is still going to roll it out across its almost 1,400 stores next year as planned, it considers chicken products as complementary to its main pizza offerings.

Leadership Statement

The Domino's chair, the Domino's chairman, commented: “The board believes that there are a series of prospects to drive further growth and value creation in our primary operations. We are concentrating on finding the ideal CEO to direct the careful implementation of that growth strategy.”

Market Challenges

Earlier this month, Domino's, which has 13 million customers in the UK and Ireland, said transactions dipped by 1.5 percent in the latest quarter. In the summer, it alerted that the quick-service industry had “intensified” as it blamed economic uncertainty in the period before the government announcement and higher payroll outlays for weaker-than-expected sales and a 15 percent decline in interim earnings.

Competitors are also facing challenges. Pizza Hut announced the closure of 68 restaurants a recently, after the business behind its British operations fell into administration.

Health Efforts

Responding to consumer trends towards healthier eating, the company has introduced light options, such as its thin-crust range of bakes below 400 calories as well as meat-free and wheat-free pizzas. A big pepperoni bake has 2,311 kcals. A large cheese and tomato pizza has over 2,100, while a individual has 909 kcal.

Acting Management

Nicola Frampton has been with the company since 2021, and was formerly with the gaming group William Hill. It is thought that she does not want to take on the chief executive role permanently.

She commented: “The company has a number of ongoing development and operational projects that we will be concentrating on implementing at a rapid rate.”

She added these included additional efforts on the organization's procurement system and product development, and its customer retention initiative.

Domino's is also in need of a full-time chief financial officer until the spring, when Andy Andrea joins from the beverage producer a well-known firm. Until then, Snow is interim finance chief.