March 28 (SeeNews) - Romania’s Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG], the holding company that operates the local KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell franchises, said that it expects sales of 320 million euro ($346.6 million) this year, up 21% on 2022.
The company will invest 6.8 million euro this year to open 10 new restaurants in Romania, of which eight KFC units and two Taco Bell units, it said in a press release on Monday.
The group will also invest 3.8 million euro in remodelling its existing restaurants in 2023.
Sphera aims for an annual increase of its normalised net profit by 88% in 2023. Also, the company targets a 58% rise in normalised EBITDA year-on-year, to 32.5 million euro.
"Going forward, we will focus on customer experience regardless of the channel chosen to interact with us, on product innovation and offers and obviously on digitalization for our group's growth," said Calin Ionescu, CEO of Sphera Franchise Group.
The group operated 177 restaurants in Romania, Moldova and Italy as at the end of 2022. The group employed 4,935 people at year-end, of whom 4,450 in Romania.
Blue-chip Sphera Franchise Group's shares traded flat at 15.7 lei as of 1335 CET on Tuesday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
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