Retail Food Group, the brand manager and franchisor behind the Donut King, Brumby’s Bakeries, Michel’s Patisserie and bb’s café brands has posted 33% rise in net profit to $23.5 million for 2008-09.
Despite the downturn putting the brakes on household spending, RFG managed to boost sales by 6.8% to $632 million across the company’s 1,063 franchised outlets. The company opened 51 new outlets during the year across its four brands.
Michel’s Patisserie and Donut King are the company’s best performing divisions. In 2008-09, Michel’s Patisserie posted a 28.5% increase in earnings before interest and tax to $15.2 million, while Donut King’s EBIT jumped 27.6% to $13.5 million.
Total EBIT increased 17.2% to $40.3 million weighted average weekly sales (AWS) across all franchised outlets grew by 4.1%.RFG chief executive Tony Alford was particularly pleased with the company’s strong cashflow performance, with net operating cash inflows jumping 75% to $23.2 million. The company also managed to reduce its debt of $21.8 million or 18.5% and increased its dividend by 9% to 9.25c for the full year. Read more.