May 13 (SeeNews) - Romanian fast food chain franchise company Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG] announced on Friday it had recorded a 70.5% year-on-year decrease in EBITDA in the first quarter of 2022, to a total of 3.8 million lei ($795,000/ 768,000 euro).
Expenses grew faster than sales in the first quarter of this year, driven primarily by the pressure from raw material costs,
which increased by an annual 40.7% to 97.8 million lei, Sphera said in a press release.
This evolution was driven by a significant hike in chicken meat prices, energy costs, as well as the general inflationary environment, the company explained.
Sphera's sales rose by an annual 31.8% in the first quarter to 278.6 million lei, out of which 241.6 million lei were derived from the Romanian market, and 3.4 million lei were generated by the Moldovan market.
"We continue to invest in the development of our footprint as between March 31st, 2021, and March 31st, 2022, we opened 15 new restaurants – of which, 14 in Romania and one new restaurant in Italy. Despite the challenging context, we see the improvement in the performance of all of our iconic brands," Sphera Franchise Group CEO Calin Ionescu said.
The company also reported recording a 39% year-on-year growth in expenses compared to sales over the first quarter of 2022, mostly due to market-wide increases in raw ingredient and energy costs, along with increases in inflation. According to the company, further price increases can be expected.
Sphera Franchise Group operates a total of 160 restaurants in the Romanian, Italian, and Moldovan markets. The group is staffed by over 4,500 employees.
By the end of 2022, the Group plans to open 18 restaurants, 12 of which on the Romanian market.
In 2021, Sphera turned a net profit of 27.4 million lei, from a 2.37 million lei net loss in the previous year.
Blue-chip Sphera Franchise Group shares traded 2.38% lower at 14.35 lei as of 15:50 CET on Friday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 4.9458 Romanian lei)