Strong performance in international markets and continued progress in UK & Ireland
Highlights
- Group turnover grew by 9.8% to £509.7 million (52 weeks ended 3 January 2016: £464.1 million)
- Group EBITDA 1.1% ahead of the prior year at £102.6 million (52 weeks ended 3 January 2016: £101.4 million)
- Continued expansion of the estate in UK & Ireland with 16 new openings
- International business performed well and extended estate with 21 new site openings, including four franchises
- UK & Ireland like-for-like sales down by 0.9%2 amidst softening casual dining market
A solid start to 2017:
Like-for-like sales back into growth in UK and Ireland during the first quarter, though market remains challenging
Actions in place to help mitigate UK sector-wide cost pressures
International delivering strong growth across all territories
Richard Hodgson, Chief Executive Officer of PizzaExpress, commented:
“2016 was a good year for PizzaExpress, with our international business delivering particularly strong results, and our UK & Ireland business giving a resilient performance despite a challenging market environment. I am pleased to say that both our Group turnover and EBITDA were ahead of last year.
We continued to expand the PizzaExpress estate in the UK & Ireland, opening 16 new restaurants as well as investing in our existing sites to ensure they remain fresh and attractive to our customers. It has also never been more important to innovate in line with evolving consumer tastes, which is why we have focussed on updating our menu seasonally, keeping it exciting and relevant.
Throughout 2016, we continued to seek ways to broaden our channels and increase our customer base. We entered a partnership with Deliveroo so that we could participate more fully in the UK’s rapidly growing home delivery market – an exciting opportunity for us. Furthermore, we expanded our retail range, which continues to be popular with consumers.
International growth continues to be a key pillar of PizzaExpress’s business strategy. In 2016, we opened 21 international sites, including a restaurant in Singapore, a new market for PizzaExpress.