Dineo Faku
TASTE Holdings, the owners of the Domino’s and Scooters pizza brands, lifted earnings in the year to February as it delivered on its five-year growth plan.
Taste is a management group focused on chicken, fish, and pizza restaurants as well as jewellery stores.
Taste shares rose 1.49 percent on the JSE on the news of a 24 percent jump in group revenue to R723.7 million as store ownership improved and the food services business contributed to the lions share of the revenue.
The shares closed 0.9 percent higher at R3.38 yesterday.
However, operating profit lost 36 percent to R31.6m for the year to February from R49.7m in the previous year.
On the other hand, the company’s core operating profit rose by 19 percent to R58.1m.
Core headline earnings a share rose 3 percent to 16.1c, while the dividend per share increased 5 percent to 6.5c.
In the year under review, Taste paid R85m for Arthur Kaplan, the jewellery and watch retailer, and it also added fast food chain Zebro’s Chicken stores to its menu for R17m.
Taste manages 25 watch brands and retails these in 79 locations in southern Africa.
Through the acquisition of Arthur Kaplan and the World’s Finest Watches, the group is now the leading retailer (by the number of outlets) of luxury Swiss watches in the region with brands like TAG Heuer, Rolex and Rado.
“The acquisition of Zebro’s Chicken has extended the group’s reach into the lower income consumer market, thereby balancing its portfolio across a broader segment of the South African consumer and spread its exposure to multiple protein categories,” Taste chief executive Carlo Gonzaga said yesterday.
Zebro’s Chicken contributed R38.6m to revenue and R3.6m to operating profit.
Exclusive
Taste controls the franchising rights for Domino’s Pizza and has an exclusive master’s licence to Domino’s Pizza for South Africa and six other African countries.
The first six Domino’s Pizza outlets were launched last year and this month the group had 23 branded outlets trading, with 32 planned to be open by the end of this month.
Taste anticipated having 62 outlets operating by August, an increase against the 55 it had expected earlier in the year, the company said.
“Sales continue to exceed original expectations, with converted stores (of which there are three currently) achieving sales of more than 50 percent higher than they were achieving prior to conversion,” the group said.
Per-store average Domino’s Pizza sales were currently more than 60 percent higher than average Scooters Pizza sales, the company said.