Spur: Mothership is offloading

More Spur customers have avoided the steakhouse chain this year than last.

More Spur customers have avoided the steakhouse chain this year than last, but whether this is because of the dog-eat-dog economic environment or the consumer boycott following the racial incident, is anyone’s guess.

If not for brand extensions at Spur, the situation would be worse. Like-for-like turnover for the year to June declined 9.9% at existing stores, but the addition of six Spur Grill and Go restaurants helped cushion the fall in revenue growth.

Franchised restaurant sales grew 4.4% in SA and 2.4% in rand terms in international restaurants, excluding the impact of UK and Ireland operations closing in the previous financial year.

Headline earnings from continuing operations declined 25.9% to R135.1 million and 8.4% on a comparable basis. Diluted Heps from continuing operations was 25.9% lower at 140.8 cents.

“Over the past year we have seen several of our competitors launch aggressive discounting campaigns. In this environment our franchisees have continued to face margin pressure and we have taken action to support franchisee profitability to ensure the sustainability of our brands,” CEO Pierre van Tonder said.

Notably, there was positive growth in all the group brands, besides embattled Captain DoRe-go’s, thanks largely to new stores.

RocoMamas continues to be one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands in the fast-casual dining sector, adding eight new outlets in the year (total 50). Spur Corp’s increased its shareholding in it to 70%.

Spur Corp plans to open 20 restaurants in SA across all its brands. It will open at least nine international restaurants in this financial year, bringing the total to 72. The focus will mainly be on Africa.

A 132 cent dividend was announced, down 5.7% y/y.