Restaurant Brands Plans Pizza Hut Sales

Stuff.co.nz:

Fastfood company Restaurant Brands has sold its first Pizza Hut restaurant to an individual franchisee and hopes to sell up to four more by year’s end.

Restaurant Brands yesterday reported a net profit after tax of $13.9 million for the half year to September 13, up 50 per cent on the previous year.

The company’s three brands are the New Zealand operations of KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks.

Pizza Hut sales fell 4.6 per cent to $38.8m. This was blamed on the closure of three loss-making sit-down restaurants in Hamilton East, Papanui and Whangarei.

The group’s strategy continues to focus more on margin than sales growth for all three brands. The group said Pizza Hut’s earnings improvements – $3.2m in ebitda, up 42 per cent up on the same time last year – were driven by operational efficiencies such as reduced call centre costs as well as new menu options such as trialling different pizza sizes, being more clever in selling different products under a bundled offer and smarter ingredient sourcing.