April 25 (SeeNews) - Romanian fast food chain Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG] plans to invest 69 million lei ($14.8 million/13.9 million euro) in its operations in 2024, including for the opening of four new restaurants, it said on Thursday.
The investment will also finance the remodelling the group's existing units and technologizing its business, including through introduction of digital ordering solutions, Sphera said in a press release.
The company opened on April 25 a new KFC restaurant in the southern city of Pitesti, following an investment of about 550,000 euro ($587,724). The new restaurant is separate from the four new units which are to be opened by the end of the year, the group said.
The new restaurant, spanning 170 sq m, is located inside Arges Mall, the newest shopping centre in Pitesti, and employs 35 staff. It is the second KFC unit that Sphera has opened this year, after the one inaugurated in Sibiu in February.
Sphera Franchise Group operates over 160 KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants in Romania, Italy, and Moldova, employing some 5,000 people.
Blue-chip Sphera Franchise's shares traded 2.2% higher at 32.5 lei as of 1157 CET on Thursday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro=4.9761 lei)