December 30 (SeeNews) - Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG], the manager of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands in Romania, opened a new Pizza Hut restaurant in the southeastern city of Buzau, it said.
Located in Buzau Shopping City mall, the restaurant is the first Pizza Hut Express restaurant in Romania, Sphera Franchise said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, on Wednesday.
Pizza Hut Express Buzau is the third Pizza Hut location inaugurated this year by the group.
In 2021, Sphera Franchise Group fulfilled the restaurant development plan as agreed with the master franchisor, YUM!, opening 13 new restaurants - six KFC restaurants in Romania, two KFC restaurants in Italy, three Pizza Hut restaurants and two Taco Bell restaurants in Romania.
Sphera Franchise Group currently operates 168 restaurants: 92 KFC restaurants in Romania, two in Moldova and 20 in Italy, as well as 41 Pizza Hut restaurants and 13 Taco Bell restaurants located in Romania. Out of 41 Pizza Hut restaurants, 21 locations are dine-in, 19 are Pizza Hut Delivery and one is Pizza Hut Express.
The company turned to a net profit of 28 million lei ($6.5 million/5.7 million euro) in the first nine months of 2021, compared to a 4.7 million lei net loss in the same period of 2020. In the first nine months of 2021, the group's restaurants registered operating profit of 70.8 million lei, double compared to same period of last year, Sphera Franchise said in a statement in November.
Sphera's shares traded 3.13% higher at 14.85 lei as at 1014 CET on Thursday on the BVB.
(1 euro=4.9490 lei)