Restaurant group Spur said on Monday franchised restaurant sales declined by 2.6 percent to R3.7 billion in the six months to December 2017 as economic conditions deteriorated in most of the markets in which it trades.
In South Africa, franchised restaurant sales declined by three percent, while sales from international restaurants increased by 1.3 percent in rand terms and by 3.2 percent on a constant exchange rate basis.
Spur said 35 new local outlets were opened and 13 closed during the period, while five outlets were opened and five closed internationally.
“The first half was a tale of two distinct quarters: while local franchised restaurant sales declined by 6.2 percent in the three- months to September 2017, the second three months of the financial year to December 2017 showed a marked improvement with sales declining by only 0.2 percent,” chief executive Pierre van Tonder said.
He said the group’s performance for the period could be attributed to the residual effects of the “perfect storm” of March 2017: including the political uncertainty caused by a cabinet reshuffle which saw the finance minister fired, the impact of the social media fallout following a customer incident at a Spur outlet in Johannesburg and a struggling economy.
“Economic growth is critical to local business and the resolution of the political turmoil in the country will no doubt have a profound impact on our future,” van Tonder said.
He said the company was also implementing remedial strategies to limit the damage, should the water crisis in Western Cape province culminate in “day zero” — when water supply would run out completely. (via African News Agency)
