Spur Corporation said yesterday it had managed to achieve a strong performance for its half year, despite the impact of load shedding and higher inflation.
In its trading statement for the six months ended December 31, 2022, the group said franchised restaurant sales for the period were 31.5% higher than the already improved sales base achieved in the six months to December 2021.
Sales for the period were 21.1% higher than the six months from January 2022 to June 2022.
"This is evidence that the group's strategic direction is gaining momentum," it said.
South African market conditions remained challenging, with higher inflation and a dramatic increase in the level of load-shedding hours, which directly impacted the supply chain.
"Despite the mounting pressure on disposable income, the group continued to attract customers to restaurants with its distinct and differentiated value proposition.
"Restaurant brand relevance and appeal, supported by enhanced customer experience, resulted in increased footfall over the period with a peak in December," it said.
Regardless of this, the group expects headline earnings per share to rise up to 98% to 138.28 cents. Earnings were boosted by increased foot traffic at its restaurants.
In addition to the Spur restaurant chain, the group also owns the Panarottis, John Dory's and RocoMamas brands.
The group said for the period under review, total restaurant sales growth for Spur was 33.6%, while Panarottis achieved 28.5% and John Dory's was 19.2%.
RocoMamas also managed to grow its sales by 14.6%.
"The improved trading performance, together with improved performance by the retail company stores, led to a continued strong recovery in both group revenue and profit," Spur said.
Spur said the earnings growth for the period, however, includes the effect of the profit for the previous comparable period, including a one-off income tax charge of R13.9 million and non-deductible interest on tax liabilities of R8 million.
"These charges followed the final resolution of the group’s dispute with the SA Revenue Service (Sars) in October 2021 over the treatment of its 2004-2009 share incentive scheme," it said.
Earnings in the previous comparable period included a charge of R22m relating to the one-off Sars dispute.
Spur expects to release its results for the six months that ended December 31, 2022, on February 24, 2023.
Spur's shares traded up 4.66% at R22.24 at 3.13pm and have decreased by 8.6% in the past year.
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