Sphera Franchise Group (“Sphera”) reported consolidated sales of RON 710.8 million in 2020, representing a decrease of 25.6% compared to the performance in 2019. The result is well-above the revised estimate, as communicated in the current report published on October 22nd, 2020. The Group’s consolidated sales in the Q4 2020 amounted to RON 208.4 million, a 5.3% quarter-on-quarter increase.
“Despite a challenging year, at the end of it we managed to get results that are well above the revised estimate, communicated in October. We made the right management decisions, we managed to maximize revenues and minimize the costs, thus providing the best possible result in what was certainly the biggest hit that the HoReCa industry took since we have been on the market. This year, we will continue to improve in terms of costs, investment in development and we will further focus on delivery services. We look forward to 2021 and I would like to thank the whole SFG team for their tireless dedication through this difficult period, “said Calin Ionescu, General Manager of Sphera.
The Group ended Q4 with a restaurant operating profit* of RON 14.5 million and a net profit* of RON 2.4 million – a good result considering that almost all restaurants were operational while the Group benefited of a decreased state aid and had limited opportunities to renegotiate rent costs. The Group ended 2020 with restaurant operating profit* of RON 49.3 million, 60.4% lower than the year before, and with a normalized EBITDA* of RON 44.1 million.
The new restaurants opened during 2020 and the increase in sales through its own delivery channels, but also through delivery platforms helped Sphera achieve a very good performance in the last two quarters of 2020, thus compensating for losses in the first half of the year.
Sales through own delivery channels, as well as through online platforms of aggregators increased from 5.9% in 2019 to 25.3% in 2020. For USFN Romania (KFC Romania), the share increased from 3% in 2019, to 23%, for ARS (Pizza Hut) it doubled, going from 25%, to 50% in 2020 and for CFF (Taco Bell) it surged from 2% to 37% in 2020. In Moldova, there were no sales for delivery in 2019, yet in 2020 the share of delivery order reached 26%. USFN Italy had insignificant (below 0.5%) number of deliveries in 2019, while in 2020, this channel reached 14%.
“We managed to obtain a turnover of 208.4 million lei in Q4, which represents an increase of 5.3% compared to Q3, despite restrictions on indoor dining. The decision to focus on delivery was a very good one, as 31% of all orders on the 3 markets of activity were made via this channel. The strong performance from the last quarter and the results above the revised budget estimates from October give us reasons to be optimistic about this year’s performance,”added Valentin Budeș, Chief Financial Officer of Sphera.
In the course of 2020, the Group inaugurated 5 new KFC restaurants in Romania, 3 new KFC stores in Italy and 1 new Taco Bell in Romania. Following negotiations with Yum!, Brands Inc., KFC Romania has 6 more restaurants to open by the end of 2021. At the end of 2020, Sphera had 158 restaurants, of which 138 were in Romania, 18 in Italy and 2 in the Republic of Moldova.
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