Famous Brands, the owner of fast-food brands such as Steers and Debonairs Pizza, says it expects to report higher full-year earnings later this month though it warned that load-shedding has negatively affected its growth prospects.
The group said in Thursday’s trading statement for the year to end-February 2023 that it expects headline earnings per share (Heps) to increase between 27% and 47% compared to the prior financial year. Heps is a measure of profit that excludes one-off items.
Basic earnings per share are expected to increase 55%-75% when compared to the prior comparable year thanks mainly to a R75m liquidation dividend from Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), the UK subsidiary it placed into administration in late 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Famous Brands said the improvement in group earnings was mainly due to an increase in sales of its leading brands as well as good logistics revenue.
“The business continues to improve its financial performance after the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions in June 2022, mainly due to a good recovery in quick service restaurant performance and casual dining,” Famous Brands said.
“The dramatic increase in the level of load-shedding combined with difficult economic conditions has, however, muted the growth prospects across the value chain of the group.”
Famous Brands is scheduled to publish its results for the year to end-February on or about May 22.
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