Restaurant Brands quarterly sales up 41 per cent

Restaurant Brands New Zealand lifted second-quarter sales by 41 per cent after the fast-food operator expanded its footprint through Australia and Hawaii.

Sales increased to $224.9 million in the 16 weeks ended September 11, from $159.5m in the equivalent period a year earlier, it said on Thursday.

New Zealand sales rose 5.3 per cent to $130.6m, while Australian sales jumped 19 per cent to $42.2m and its Hawaiian operations added $52.1m. On a same-store basis, sales rose 6.7 per cent.

New Zealand’s largest fast-food operator is expanding into new overseas markets to drive future earnings growth. In April 2016 it expanded into KFC in Australia and in March 2017 bought the largest fast-food operator in Hawaii.

Chief executive Russel Creedy told shareholders at the annual meeting in June that the company was now “truly international” and expected sales this financial year to exceed $700m, up from $497.2m last year. Today’s release showed sales in the first half of the year were up 51 per cent to $386.1m.

In New Zealand, the company’s 92 KFC stores lifted sales 8 per cent in the second quarter to $99.4m. Its 34 Pizza Hut stores increased sales 2.9 per cent to $13.2m.

Sales at its 23 Starbucks Coffee stores dipped 6.4 per cent $7.3m and sales at 19 Carl’s Jr outlets fell 6.1 percent to $10.7m.

In Australia, the company’s 47 KFC stores contributed $A39.2m ($NZ42.8 m) in sales during the second quarter, up 16 per cent from the year-earlier.

Its Hawaiian-based operations include 37 Taco Bell and 45 Pizza Hut stores in Hawaii, Guam and Saipan acquired on March 7, 2017, which contributed $US38.1m ($NZ51.9 m) in the second quarter.

The company’s shares advanced 0.5 per cent to $6.37.