dominos pizza group plc said thursday that business in the first quarter was strong with orders rising on year despite a strong comparative period the pizza chain said that total orders grew 55 over the quarter despite a strong comparative period a year prior when the uk was under strict coronavirus lockdown restrictions excluding splits and the effects of increased vat system salesthe sum of all sales made by both franchised and corporate stores in the uk and irelandin the 13 weeks ended march 28 rose 39 on year system sales including splits and the increased vat rate slipped 15 on year to 3659 million pounds 4623 million its no secret that inflation is a key challenge for everyone at the moment and the current consumer environment is challenging but our scale and integrated supply chain as demonstrated in the covid19 downturn mean dominos is wellplaced to navigate the current conditions the company said