By Nona Pelletier nona.pelletier@radionz.co.nz
Restaurant Brands continues to serve up strong growth, with total third quarter sales up 9.4 percent on the year earlier.
Photo: AFP
The fast food group's total sales rose by $7.6 million to $88.7m in the three months ended December 7, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
A craving for chicken saw its KFC stores contribute $3.8m of the increase, with total sales up 9.8 percent to $64.5m.
KFC's same store sales growth rose 3.7 percent, but was not as strong as in the previous year, when it saw double digit growth.
Successful promotions in the quarter included the Sour Cream & Sweet Chilli burger and the return of the popular Surf Safe Buckets, which included a $1 donation to Surf Life Saving New Zealand for every bucket sold.
KFC's sales in the year to date were up 10 percent to $217.6m, while same store sales were up 7.2 percent as the company now has 91 stores, following the closure of its loss-making Kaikohe store.
Total sales for burger brand Carl's Jr more than doubled to $7.5m, with the opening of nine more stores since last year, and another expected to open within three months. But on a same store basis, the sales fell 2.5 percent.
Starbucks Coffee's total sales rose 5.7 percent to $6.2m in the quarter, while store numbers were steady at 26, as Restaurant Brands focused on improving the customer experience and building the brand.
Pizza Hutt's total sales fell 3.9 percent to $10.4m as Restaurant Brand now owns fewer stores, in line with the company's strategy to close or franschise lower volume stores.
On a same store basis, Pizza Hut's sales rose more than four percent, and as a brand it continued to grow strongly with the total network sales for the quarter up seven percent at $20.1m.
Year to date sales for Pizza Hut's entire network rose 6.8 percent to $65.9m.