Fast food chain the Spur Corporation says it recorded a 1.3% jump in franchised restaurants sales to R7.1bn, boosted by business from local outlets.

According to the sales figures for the year ended June 30, the group opened 44 new restaurants locally and 11 outside of South Africa.

But the growth was not without a downside, as 27 outlets shut down, 18 locally and 9 internationally.

Spur brands include Spur Steak Ranches, John Dory’s, The Hussar Grill and Roco Mommas.

“Franchised restaurant sales in South Africa grew by 1.5%, with sales from international restaurants declining by 0.7% in rand terms,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

The results exclude sales from Captain DoRegos chain, which was sold in March.

“Following a decline of 6.0% and 0.1% in local restaurant sales across the group in the first and second quarters of the financial year (relative to the prior year), we reported growth of 1.4% for the third quarter and 12.2% for the fourth quarter,” said CEO Pierre van Tonder.

According to the group, the Spur accounts for approximately two thirds of group restaurant sales in South Africa.

It stated that the Hussar Grill and RocoMamas restaurants continued to perform well, benefitting from new outlets and growth in existing businesses, however, Panarottis was said to be impacted by stiff competition in the pizza market and a shift in promotional strategy.

The John Dory’s also suffered the impacted of temporary closures of  key outlets which are currently undergoing revamps.

Spur is due to release its annual results on September 6.

The company said it expected the local trading environment to remain subdued, due to the increasing cost of life including the impact of the rising fuel prices and the new VAT increase which came into effect in April.

Source: fin24 – www.fin24.com