Restaurant Brands' net profit expands by about $21m

Fast food retailing group Restaurant Brands has seen an increase in net profit, despite the ongoing challenges on the hospitality sector from Covid-19.

Key number (12 months ended 31 December 2021 versus a year ago)

• Net profit $51.9 million versus $30.6m
• Revenue $1.1 billion versus $925m
• Underlying profit $172.7m versus $147.3m

The company said the 2021 financial year was once again adversely affected by Covid-19 disruptions across all of its operations, including the extended lockdown in New Zealand.

The company, which runs the KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl's Jr. and Taco Bell brands in New Zealand, said all its divisions continued to trade through the crisis and achieved an improved underlying profit.

Offsetting the adverse affects of Covid-19, the company saw its United States federal Paycheck Protection Program loan in Hawaii forgiven, resulting in an additional $11.4m income.

In New Zealand, the company said it received $7.2m in wage subsidies which was fully passed onto staff.

It said the local operations recovered well after re-opening from lockdown, and the underlying sales growth was driven by another good performance by both KFC and Carl's Jr. through both the delivery and in-store channels.

The new KFC "click and collect" option and the launch of the new KFC e-commerce website helped drive the strong result, Restaurant Brands said.

Taco Bell remained a small but growing portion of the New Zealand business sales, with six stores opened during the year and sales from the four existing stores continuing to track to expectations, it said.

The company also continued its Pizza Hut sub-franchising process, with seven stores sold to franchisees during the year.

It said overall store numbers remained constant, with the seven Pizza Hut stores sold offset by three new KFC store openings and the continued roll out of Taco Bell.

It said two poorly performing Carl's Jr. stores were closed and rebranded as Taco Bell and KFC stores.