Max’s Group Inc., operator of the largest casual dining restaurant chain, said Thursday net income climbed 14.8 percent to P724.2 million in 2019 from P631.1 million in 2018 on steady increase of revenues.
Max’s Group said in a disclosure to the stock exchange systemwide sales, a measure of sales from company-owned and franchise stores, rose 7 percent to P20.1 billion from P18 billion in 2018.
“Our performance demonstrates the success of our strategies to focus on our core business and spur long-term expansion through franchising. Our continued investment in our commissaries also marshals the integration and modernization of our operations,” Max’s Group president and chief executive Robert Trota said.
“We are cognizant of the headwinds in the current business environment and assure the investing public that our teams are well-equipped to sustain levels of service and profitability,” he said.
Restaurant sales amounted to P11.79 billion, up 4.4 percent from P11.30 billion in 2018. Commissary sales increased 13.6 percent to P1.78 billion from P1.57 billion.
Franchising and other revenue rose 1 percent to P828.92 million from P820.41 million in 2018.
Max’s Group said the partnerships with food aggregators helped accelerate growth. Combined with in-house delivery operations, systemwide delivery sales grew 20.4 percent to P1.87 billion from P1.55 billion in 2018.
“Following a year where we invested in our brands to drive mainstream relevance, our focus now is to deliver on the increased demand. Our integrated supply chain programs are designed to furnish consistent quality, cost-optimized, and responsive services to our growing customer base and store network. The fundamentals we put in place will serve us well in light of the challenges we now face in 2020,” said Max’s Group chief operating officer Ariel Fermin.
MGI opened 82 new stores including 22 overseas last year. These brought the company’s total store network to 760, with 70 situated across several locations in North America, the Middle East and Asia.
The restaurant chain also approved to increase the size of a share buyback program to P1 billion. The company extended the period of the buyback to March 13, 2022.