March 12 (Reuters) - Britain's Domino's Pizza Group

reported a marginal rise in its 2023 profit on Tuesday,

and also forecast the profit for the current year to be in line

with expectations, supported by the easing of raw material

costs.

The company, a franchisee of U.S.-based Domino's Pizza Inc

, said that it was targeting 2 billion pounds ($2.56

billion) in system sales by 2028, as it increases its stores to

1,600 by 2028 and 2.5 billion pounds of sales by 2033 from the

2,000 stores.

The group, which has about 1,319 stores in the UK and

Ireland, posted system sales of 1.5 billion pounds for the full

year ended Dec. 31.

The company had earlier raised prices to keep up with the

high costs of raw materials, but as costs have started to ease

the company has had to grapple with lower deliveries, as

customers turn more cautious on their spending amid a cost of

living crisis.

It posted a 3.6% rise in its underlying core profit to 138.1

million pounds.

Total orders for 2023 was up only 1%, dragged down by

deliveries, but its collections business grew 13.3% as more

buyers collected their orders in a bid to cut down delivery

charges.

($1 = 0.7811 pounds)