Domino’s Pizza is thriving in the economically-stricken UK and Republic of Ireland.

The UK’s leading pizza delivery firm, Domino’s Pizza, witnessed a strong growth in profits in 2008 as the credit crunch curbed eating out.

The company’s profits rose by 24.7% to £23.4 million, along with like-for-like sales up by 10%. Total sales are up 18.4% to £350.8m.

The pizza firm’s success was further buoyed by the opening of 52 new stores in 2008, creating 1,600 jobs and taking the total of Domino’s Pizza stores across the UK and the Republic of Ireland to 553.

Chris Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Domino’s, said: “I am delighted to report another excellent set of results this year, which reflects great momentum in the business with like-for-like sales growth of 10.0%, building on the very strong performance in 2007.

“This growth has been achieved while continuing our aggressive expansion programme […] leaving us on track to exceed our target of at least 1,000 stores in the next 10 years.”

Domino’s Pizza also experienced a strong start to 2009 with like-for-like sales up by 15% in the first six weeks of the year, hinting at the growing trend across the population of staying in to save money.

Domino’s also reported that a third of its 2.7m customers were actually new customers.

Moore added: “We are confident that we are well positioned for another year of strong growth.”

Domino’s Pizza was founded in 1960 in the US and has more than 8,700 stores in over 60 countries.