(Reuters) - Britain's Domino's Pizza Group said on Wednesday the second quarter started off slower due to a stronger comparative period after it reported a dip in sales and lower orders in the first quarter.

The company, which operates and franchises Domino's stores in the UK and Ireland, said like-for-like sales on a comparable basis were down 0.5%, with orders down 0.8% for the 13 weeks ended on March 31.

(This story has been corrected to fix the day of the week to Wednesday in paragraph 1)