GEISHA KOWLESSAR-ALONZO
Senior Reporter
geisha.kowlessar@guardian.co.tt
Prestige Holdings Ltd (PHL) has enjoyed a strong performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 as its profit after tax increased by 25 per cent from $7.8 million to $9.8 million.
This is according to the company's consolidated unaudited results for the three months ended February 29, 2024.
The results noted that group sales increased by 10 per cent to $341 million from $309 million in the prior year, which resulted in a profit before tax of $15.3 million compared to a profit of $11.6 million for the same period in 2023. That was a 32 per cent increase.
In commenting on the company's performance, Prestige chairman, Christian Mouttet, in his statement, further noted, "Cash flow from operations was $26.9 million and we ended the quarter with $100 million in cash having reduced total borrowings by $5.8 million. During the period we remodelled two restaurants and ended the period with 134 restaurants."
Mouttet added that all brands posted solid performances during the quarter, with its Subway and Pizza Hut results driven by improved operations, efficiencies and strong demand for innovative menu items and value offerings.
"Top line sales were impacted by the opening of five new Starbucks restaurants at Brentwood, Aranguez, O’Meara, St Augustine and Amazonia Mall, Guyana, when compared to the first quarter of 2023."
Commenting on other aspects of the company's operations Mouttet said he was extremely pleased to report that KFC recently achieved a significant milestone of serving 150,000 "harvest meals."
The Harvest Meal Programme, which has been active for two years, is designed to provide unsold KFC food to participating NGOs in T&T.
"This unsold food is carefully packaged and transported, following accepted global food safety protocols, and is then repurposed into meals and served to the less fortunate. "We are very happy to have the opportunity to positively impact the communities in which we operate by partnering with NGOs to provide meals to those in need," Mouttet explained.
Going forward, he said significant investment is planned in the current financial year for new store development, including Guyana, as well as the remodelling of existing assets in T&T.
"We expect these developments, as well as our continued brand initiatives, to continue to deliver positive results," Mouttet added.
The consolidated financial statements include the activities of PHL, the parent company, which comprises KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway and Starbucks, Weekenders Trinidad Ltd (TGI Fridays Trinidad), Prestige Restaurants Jamaica Ltd (TGI Fridays Jamaica) and PHL Guyana Inc. (Starbucks Guyana).
PHL increased prices at its KFC franchise twice in the last five months, pushing up the cost of its chicken-based menu in December and February.
The December 2023 price increase raised the cost of its meals by between $1 and $2.
Speaking to Guardian Media after the February price hike, PHL's chief executive officer, Simon Hardy, said the company adjusted its prices upwards because of the 17 per cent increase in minimum wage, which took effect on January 1, as well as price increases from suppliers.
“The main jump for us was the minimum wage as we employ 3,300 people. We only made the changes on February 22. But inevitably, a business such as ours can't, with an employee base such as ours, hold those prices forever. Just making a little comparison, you know. Everyone thinks that there's a lot of profit being made. We are a high-sales business but a low-margin business, only 4.2 per cent of our sales are profit. So, we have a lot of sales, but it's not a lot of profit,” he stressed.
As at yesterday's date, PHL's issued share capital was 62,513,002 shares and its market capitalisation was $875.18 million. The Mouttet family, through three companies, owns about 68 per cent of PHL.
The company's share price has increased by 50.54 per cent for the year, up to yesterday.