Fast-food restaurants operator, Simbisa Brands Limited, says it intends to grow its footprint by adding 92 new stores in the 2022 financial year at an investment of US$19, 3 million.
Of these stores, eight are earmarked to be Chicken Inn
drive-through sites in line with the increased focus on diversifying the
group’s customer services channel. Four will be casual dining brands while the
other four will be new food trailer or container concepts.
Simbisa currently has a footprint in Zimbabwe, Ghana,
Mauritius, Namibia (which has been franchised), Kenya, Zambia and DRC, another
franchised market.
The fast-food restaurant operator’s plans to grow its
network come at a time when Governments are gradually opening up the economies
after a number of lockdown measures necessitated by the advent of the Covid-19
pandemic.
“As we see our operating markets adjusting to the new
normal trading environment, with an easing in restrictions and recovery in
capacity, the intention is to accelerate growth in our footprint whilst still
ensuring strong organic growth and recovery in our existing business, chief
executive Dioniso said.
The group said its revenues were negatively impacted by
Covid-19, including through reduced trading hours, limited customer sit-in
numbers and overall depressed macroeconomic conditions in the various markets.
“We are encouraged by government plans and the increasing
availability and uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in the countries we operate in.
Currently, over 80 percent of our Zimbabwe employees have been fully
vaccinated.
“The business is confident of a swift upturn in customer
counts as restrictions are gradually relaxed as witnessed earlier in the
just-ended financial year,” said Mr. Addington Chinake in a statement
accompanying the Simbisa brand’s full-year financial results to 30 June 2021,”
the group said.
Despite the challenges, Simbisa said regional expansion
continued through the opening of 22 new counters, of which 16 were opened in
east Africa’s Kenya. Namibia has been converted into a franchised market
effective July 1, 2021.
This is on the backdrop of strong trading volumes in the
group’s financial year to June 2021 despite limitations that were experienced
in trading hours.
In the year to June 2021, Simbisa recorded a 108 percent
jump in revenue to close the year at $18, 789 billion from $9, 044 billion
realised in 2020, while profit before tax surged by 33 percent to $2,165
billion from $1,631 billion reported in the same period in 2020.
The fast-food restaurant operator posted a 97 percent
growth in profit for the year to close at $2,151 billion from $1,092 billion
realised in the prior comparable period.
The group’s operating profit surged by 233 percent to
$2,412 billion (inflation adjusted terms) in comparison to $725 million
recorded last year.
Going forward the group also hinted at investing in growing
the Dial –a-Delivery (DAD) business across all its markets. Herald
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