How Domino’s keeps adding customersHow Domino’s keeps adding customers

Same-store sales have risen so much at Domino’s Pizza Inc. — including 13 percent in the U.S. in the quarter ended Sept. 11 — that its operators simply don’t have time to build as many locations as they’d like.

Or so says Patrick Doyle, the chain’s CEO.

“They’re busy right now,” Doyle said on the company’s third quarter earnings call Tuesday. 

“You do a plus-13 and you’re very, very busy keeping your stores staffed, and managing our existing stores well.”

Domino’s operators are indeed busier this year than they’ve been in a long time. The chain’s domestic same-store sales performance was so strong that even Doyle was at a loss for words. “Our domestic performance was phenomenal,” he said. “I’m not sure how else to put it.”

Investors cheered ...