Chief Executive Officer (current, through Sep 30, 2026), Domino's Pizza, Inc.
Jubilant Foodworks' Sameer Khetarpal & Domino's Russell Weiner On Domino's Growth Plan & More
What's cooking at Domino's Pizza? Catch Mangalam Maloo talk to Sameer Khetarpal, CEO of Jubilant Foodworks & Russell ...
About Russell Weiner
During Domino's Pizza's second quarter 2026 earnings call on July 20, 2026, CEO Russell Weiner stated that the company's order counts were "up meaningfully" in total, as well as individually in both delivery and carryout. He said the company believes the overall QSR industry order counts were flat during the quarter, and described Domino's performance as "significant" in that context. Weiner attributed the company's approach to a "barbell" strategy focused on order counts and ticket size, and said that driving order counts is correlated with franchisee profitability and customer acquisition through the loyalty program. Weiner acknowledged a "discrete event" in the second quarter that negatively impacted franchisee profitability due to a "ticket drag," but said the company is "fixing it" and that it should not affect long-term franchisee profitability. He described the most important lesson from his nearly two decades with Domino's as the principle that "order counts drive long-term success" and that winners in QSR grow order counts while maintaining "healthy ticket through discipline pricing."
Transcript (25 segments)
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Interviewer0:04
You're watching us here on a very, very special episode of The Weekend. I call it special because it's not every day that you get to have two CEOs of the same company. Yes, one is a global parent and the other one India. We have a recently appointed CEO of Domino's International, I call it recent because it's this year itself. We have Russell Weiner and the more recently appointed CEO of the India business, Sameer Khetarpal, in what is his first media interaction as well. Thanks a lot, gentlemen, for joining in. And that actually brings me to my first question. Both of you are recently appointed, you've been at Domino's for a very long time, but we all exchange notes on leadership. I've been learning a lot from Russell over the last two days, and we've been together speaking to employees, doing store visits together, and we're exchanging notes on menu, on culture, what other countries are doing, how fast India can grow, what's the opportunity. So truly exciting to be with him, and I hope to see him soon at his office in Ann Arbor. All right, we take that point, Russell. Usually, you know, close to India, excited about it because a global parent usually promises some more for India. What do you have in your back today? I mean, Christmas is around again. Thanks for having us.
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Russell Weiner1:18
What's great is, I would say it's flipped here. We're coming to India and we're excited. So yeah, Domino's Pizza, we have 19,000 going on 20,000 stores, we're in 95 countries around the world. Outside of the U.S., we have the most stores of all those countries here in India. And so we're just so excited to meet the team that makes it happen and exchange ideas and learn about all the great stuff they're doing. So what have you decided in terms of deeper engagement this time around? What are the areas? Ah, I mean, it hasn't started today. So, you know, Domino's started here in 1996 and we've worked closely all of those years, not only on product, but on digital and all the things, supply chain, everything that you see here today. So this is not even my first time here in India, because it's a place we come through.
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Interviewer2:13
Exchange take that point. Uh, you know, you've been around for about a little over two months now, going on three. What have your thoughts been about this business so far? Uh, what are the areas where you believe that you can go and take the company?
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Sameer Khetarpal2:26
So I think I'm still learning. I'm here to visit all the stores, all the factories that we have, and I do hope to visit sooner than later. My early thoughts are four. Number one, customer first is such a tremendous opportunity in India, right from serving a 79 rupee pizza to launching a gourmet. The many India. So number one. Number two is technology forward. I think today Domino's is the number three most used food app in India. Number three is operations excellence, and you will see us wearing these jackets, right? And how do we continuously make sure that we are doing faster delivery without compromising on safety, making better pizzas every time, and making sure we're delighting the customer. And last but not the least, building the culture of the organization, that is truly, truly very important. And that's where I exchange a lot of notes from Domino's too.
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Interviewer3:25
I see your jackets. It's not a particularly subtle plug. Domino's 20 minutes delivery. I'm told that most of your deliveries do happen sub 20 minutes already. So this is just inside our classic Russell Weiner marketing.
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Russell Weiner3:38
No, it's not. It's, we're definitely learning, taking one from here. I mean, when you think about Domino's being the number one pizza company in the world, a fact to get your head around is we deliver as a system globally three million pizzas every day. Three million pizzas every day. And what we were talking about a lot is really the focus, even though we deliver so many pizzas, is on one pizza at a time. So instead of thinking about delivering three million pizzas every day, we think about delivering one pizza three million times. And the focus on that is what is getting these guys to really bring something forward. Pretty bold. We're known as a 30-minute delivery company and they're committing to 20 minutes.
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Interviewer4:22
20 minutes is what you're promising delivery in India for right now. Does that mean there will be a lot more advertising activity around it? Because the first time the 30 minutes was launched, we did have that big campaign coming in with Paresh bringing back.
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Sameer Khetarpal4:33
So I think we'll find we'll continue to innovate on the messaging too. But right now, the most important thing is going forward on every day better from this, right? That's kind of the culture I want to drive in the stores. Every delivery one second better and taking us towards 20 minutes without compromising on safety of the riders. So I think, if I step back, we've expanded the store network, we have the density, and we have a lot of customer data and technology to serve customers very close to 20 minutes. You're right, more than 50% of our deliveries are actually happening around 20 minutes. But for us to be operationally excellent, we got to double down on that and make it kind of start making it a promise.
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Interviewer5:23
Does it work now? If I just use my phone and try to order a pizza, will it come before the end of this interview?
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Sameer Khetarpal5:29
Yes, we have two stores which are about two kilometers away. If you order now, I bet you you will get in 20 minutes. Challenge accepted.
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Interviewer5:38
Don't forget the tip.
You spoke about rider safety. That would be a bit of a concern. What are the steps that you're taking for that? And secondly, you said 50% of the orders are delivered in less than 20 minutes already. You guys have the data, the analytics. Are those customers who get the pizza in sub 20 minutes ordering more and ordering higher ticket items? I mean, does that then make economic sense for you to deliver in 20 minutes?
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Sameer Khetarpal6:05
Sure, it's like the two questions. Let me answer them separately. So firstly, the rider safety comes first. We will not put any undue pressure on the rider in terms of incentivizing him to do it under 20 minutes. If it can be delivered, we will deliver. Number two, we have designated stores based upon the density they serve and the road traffic during peak hours that we are designating as 20-minute stores. And number three, when you spoke about customers, always want a fresher, hotter, tastier pizza on their plate. And the best experience of eating a pizza actually is fresh out of the oven, and we're just trying to replicate that inside their homes in delivery. So that's why we do see a high correlation between faster deliveries and repeat rates for the customers.
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Interviewer6:58
Would you be able to give some numbers, some quantitative numbers?
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Sameer Khetarpal7:00
Um, I don't have it right now handy, but our analytics teams have done that research and definitely there is a strong correlation.
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Russell Weiner7:08
You know, I think I'd add to that. We have an internal phrase we use at Domino's: 'Slower matters and fast work helps.' So I think when you think about what we talked about earlier, the whole ability to deliver in 20 minutes started years ago when using advanced analytics, they planned for where their stores would be from a population density. We worked on innovation, we worked on oven speed, we worked on technology within the store so that within the store we're faster than ever, which means that when we leave the store, the job is done. So there are governors on all of the vehicles and so you can't speed. You're late or not late when you've left the store. And that goes back, that's years of planning got us to today. So you guys are fast but not in a hurry, let's put it that way.
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Interviewer8:03
Yes, yeah. Slower matters, faster accounts. What's your sense of business right now? I mean, we have gone through a pandemic, we've seen a fair amount of inflation, that would be an understatement, and now hopefully the worst of inflation is behind, but then consumer sentiment isn't back to what it was pre-COVID. What was your thought on business, so to say?
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Sameer Khetarpal8:24
So I think the whole consumer flywheel, right after the pandemic, we do see uptake in dining and takeaway. We see consumers going out and spending more. Equally, they are concerned about inflation, and there are certain trends where they're eating as much but not spending as much per ticket. So we're trying to conserve. I think for us, the innovation lies around making sure that we are catering to multiple occasions with multiple price points. And that's why we have Paratha Pizza, a gourmet pizza, and a Pizza Mania which starts at 69 rupees, and we're constantly innovating on bundling so that it doesn't hurt the pockets of the consumer.
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Russell Weiner9:12
Yeah, I think globally Domino's is known for value. And so in tougher times, it doesn't mean that people want to eat out any less or treat themselves any less. And so no brand ever wants to say they're recession-proof, and obviously we're always concerned about our customers. But during times when times are tough, we find sometimes with Domino's, people who maybe would have gone to shop other places come to Domino's because they can still get that value. So as long as the value is right, we're excited about the prospects for Domino from a Jubilant FoodWorks standpoint.
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Interviewer9:45
Sameer, you know, Domino's is one part. Everyone's looking at the other part as well. They want to know, what's your priority is right now?
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Sameer Khetarpal9:53
So I think firstly, we will continue to double down on Domino's, and that's no taking away. Equally, we see the market opportunity in terms of other cuisines. And we have Popeyes for chicken, which is a large market. Then we have Dunkin', which I'm trying to repave it to coffee first. And you've seen Paul Brown was here and we opened our first coffee-first store in Noida. And then we have Hong's, which is homegrown Indian-style Chinese. So these are all very large cuisine or categories in India. I will expand from here where we are without compromising on Domino's, but at the same time keep the focus on few, make it tastier, faster, and go deeper over there. So we'll see a both of, not doubling down on Domino's but focusing on few bets that we're going to place.
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Interviewer10:52
Do you have a long-term revenue mix and ideal revenue mix?
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Sameer Khetarpal10:55
Not at the moment. I will come back because I'm still very early. What's the potential? Each of them, as you would notice, is a large enough market. As I formulate my strategy, I will come back.
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Interviewer11:07
One of your thoughts on the Indian market being with regards to correlation of the same store sales growth with the GDP and Domino's growth itself.
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Russell Weiner11:15
Yeah, what we're excited about is not just same store sales growth, we look at total retail sales growth. So when you look at the number of stores they're targeting opening this year here is 250 stores, and 250 stores will be amongst the leader globally for us. And that's really the way to measure the health of the business. You could have one store, never open multiple stores, and the same store sales go up a lot because it's the only store. What these guys are doing is impressive because same store sales are up while they're continuing to grow at a rapid pace. So same store sales, I'm not saying don't matter, they matter, and our franchisees, our stores care a lot about that. But if we didn't care about total retail sales and we didn't open up stores, we couldn't do things like the 20-minute guarantee because we wouldn't have the density. We couldn't tap into different parts of the pizza economy. So delivery is great, when you think about carryout, if someone's going to pick up a pizza, it needs to be close to their house, or if they're going to sit down, it needs to be closer to the house. And so same store sales is important long term because I think long-term investors care most about net income and how EPS is growing, and all that is measured by how much pizza you sell, and that's total retail sales.