Restaurant Brands today said it had cut its dividend after it reported a loss of $3.6 million in the February year.
Net profit after tax excluding non trading items was $6.5 million for the 12 months, compared to $12.3 million for the prior year.
The overall group loss resulted from non-trading charges of $14.4 million, largely arising from exit costs and writedowns on the Pizza Hut Victoria investment.
Restaurant Brands said total sales for its New Zealand operations were up 1.7 per cent to $293.6 million, with same store sales up 0.8 per cent.
Record sales were achieved for KFC at $182.7 million – up 7.1 per cent on a same store basis – and Starbucks Coffee at $31.3 million – up 3.2 per cent for the same stores.
But the Pizza Hut New Zealand business had a particularly difficult year, with some significant reductions in sales volumes and consequent flow on effects to profitability.
The impact of major competitor growth and aggressive pricing activity had seen sales drop 10.5 per cent to $79.7 million for the year – a same store drop of 11.8 per cent.
Given the reduction in earnings in the past year and the associated adverse impact on cash flow, together with significant capital commitments for the KFC transformation project and franchise renewal payments, the board had elected to reduce the final dividend to 3 cents per share, the company said.
That brought the total dividend for the year to 5.5 cents.
Looking ahead, Restaurant Brands said KFC was expected to continue to generate sales and margin growth at similar levels to the past year.
The company would continue to invest significant levels of capital to complete its store transformation programme.
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