Compass Group Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 29, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Yum China First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Florence Lip, Investor Relations Senior Director. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Yum China's Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call. On today's call are our CEO, Ms. Joey Wat and our CFO, Mr.

Speaker 1

Andy Young. I'd like to remind everyone that our earnings call and investor materials contain forward looking statements, which are subject to future events and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these forward statements. All forward looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statement in our earnings release and the risk factors included in our filings with the SEC. This call also includes certain non GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 1

You should carefully consider the comparable GAAP measures. Reconciliation of non GAAP and GAAP measures is included in our earnings release. You can find the webcast of this call and a PowerPoint presentation on our IR website. Please note that during today's call, all year over year growth results exclude the impact of foreign currency unless otherwise noted. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China.

Speaker 1

Joey? Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm proud to share that we turned in a solid performance in the Q1. System sales grew 6% year over year, on top of 17% growth last year. Our revenue reached US3 $1,000,000,000 in the quarter, an all time high.

Speaker 1

Core operating profit improved to US396 million dollars from a high base of US392 million dollars last year. Adjusted operating profit in quarter 1 of last year was the highest in the 30 quarters since our spin off. This quarter was the 2nd highest. We achieved these results in a challenging and competitive environment, thanks to our resilient business model and our team's agility and hard work. We demonstrate once again our ability to adjust to changing conditions and deliver solid results.

Speaker 1

We continued to invest to accelerate growth, adding a record number of stores. We reached and surpassed the milestone of 15,000 stores. At the same time, we returned a record amount of cash to our shareholders through share repurchases and cash dividends totaling US745 $1,000,000 Let me start with our store opening strategy. We remain bullish on China. We see the China market as offering us white space for years to come.

Speaker 1

We intend to fill in by expanding our store portfolio. In quarter 1, we passed the 15,000 store milestone, opening 378 net new stores. I am proud of how we have been able to accelerate. It took us 25 years to build the first 5,000 store in China, 8 years to build the next 5,000 stores and just 4 years for the last 5,000 stores. We are well on our way to another 5,000 stores by 2026.

Speaker 1

Contrary to select recent reports, China continues to develop rapidly. With hundreds of new shopping malls, residential complexes and commercial developments opening every year, Urbanization and long term consumption upgrades in Tier 2 cities and below present particularly attractive opportunity for us. Housing and living courses are more affordable there. Tremendous consumption potential has yet to be unleashed. We expect roughly 30% of our new stores this year to be in new cities or strategic locations such as transportation and tourist locations.

Speaker 1

Our flexible store models and franchise partnerships give us the tools to capitalize on every opportunity. Taking a closer look at each of these, our flexible store models enable us to expand across city tiers and penetrate further. In quarter 1, 2 thirds of new store openings were in smaller store formats. On average, our new store now takes just RMB 1,200,000 to RMB 1,500,000 CapEx to build, and we are always pushing for even lower CapEx and innovating new formats. KFC has recently developed a small time mini model for lower tier cities.

Speaker 1

With a simplified menu and optimized equipment, per store CapEx can get as low as RMB 500,000. Diesel has just 3,400 stores and holds significant potential for further expansion. We have developed a compact model. It is smaller than our standard stores, but features more dining space and menu choices than our satellite model. These promising new models enable us to add store density and enter smaller cities more flexibly and profitably.

Speaker 1

Transportation and tourist locations represent just single digit of our store mix right now, but they are key to capturing the spike in travel volume during holiday periods. Same store sales at these locations grew around 20% during Chinese New Year. We are opening more stores at highway service centers in over 20 provinces, capitalizing on the opportunity presented by the rising car ownership. Some of our stores will be opened through franchising. In fact, partnering with franchisees is key to unlocking opportunities in lower tiers, remote areas and other strategic locations.

Speaker 1

At our Investor Day last year, we estimate about 15% to 20% of our net new stores in the next 3 years will come from franchising. In quarter 1, this mix has reached 19% at KFC. A disciplined approach sets our accelerator expansion. Payback periods have remained consistent at 2 years for KFC and improved from 3 years to 2 to 3 years for Pizza Hut. We track these KPIs very closely to help ensure we open high quality new stores.

Speaker 1

Let's now spend some time on our brand strategy. We have devised robust strategies to meet diverse demands in China. We satisfy our customers' taste buds with delicious, innovative food, and we built an emotional bond with them. Through a combination of premium and affordable options, we make sure there's something for everyone. We recorded over 460,000,000 transactions in the Q1 alone, representing a 15% increase year over year.

Speaker 1

It was not easy. While our restaurants remained open this year and last year, there were a lot more other restaurants opening during the holiday this year. But our customers respond well to our offerings. The strong transaction growth also reflects our successful strategy to spread our price points expanding into lower ticket orders. And that will allow us to capture more market shares.

Speaker 1

Now let me spend some time on each brand, beginning with KFC, our primary growth engine. Delicious, innovative food and amazing value have been the keys to our success. Our high ticket average products sold very well in quarter 1. KFC's beef burger and whole chicken sales grew double digit. We take a holistic approach to drive traffic while protecting our ticket average.

Speaker 1

We launched the super juicy pineapple beef burger, The combination of pineapple and beef taste is exotic and customers like it. At the same time, we add entry price beef burgers into our weekday value combo. So we have both value and premium options to meet diverse consumer needs. Our 6 years old Senator Crazy Thursdays continue to drive major traffic to KFC. Thursdays now even outperformed weekends.

Speaker 1

Leveraging full chicken utilization, we offer great value to customers at sustainable cost. Our delivery business remains strong. Delivery sales have grown double digits every year for the past decade. We identify smaller orders as an area of opportunity to tap it. KFC reduced its delivery fee and expand 1 person meal options in late February.

Speaker 1

The initiatives attract strong incremental traffic, capturing more market share, especially in lower tier cities. To offset the lower delivery fee, we have taken actions to reduce our overall operating costs for riders. This includes introducing platform riders at selected locations, where their quality actually matches our dedicated riders. We can serve more customers while maintaining service quality and sustainable margins. We are constantly searching for new growth pillars.

Speaker 1

K Coffee continues to grow nicely, achieving a 30% increase in cups sold in quarter 1. We are excited about further penetrating this segment of a growing coffee market. To this end, we have developed a side by side K Coffee model. We call it Jianbing Jian. It's the same storefront and dining area cultivate a cafe ambiance surrounded by coffee aroma.

Speaker 1

These shops are connected to KFC stores so that we can share a kitchen to keep the investment and operating cost down. Using KFC equipment, we can serve unique products like coffee flows, shooting cafe and sparkling coffee, qipaomeishi, without additional investment in equipment. Summer is coming, so we really encourage our friends to try this very refreshing sparkling coffee. It's indeed one of our best selling coffee already. We see initial success of 100 side by side stores across 80 cities already, and we intend to look this model out aggressively.

Speaker 1

Next is Pizza Hut, which now has over 3,400 stores only and is ready for accelerated growth. In the past 12 months, Pizza Hut has over 400 stores and increased city coverage by 10% to over 750 cities. We aim to broaden its addressable market with a strong value proposition for mass market appeal. Our strategy emphasized widening price points, expanding into new categories and delivering emotional value to consumers. 1st, we are widening price points.

Speaker 1

We enriched our entry price pizza offerings. Sales from below RMB 50 pizzas grew double digit in quarter 1. Our bonanese pizza, Yixi Roujian pizza, priced at RMB39 has quickly become one of our top 5 best selling pizzas. It's a familiar taste inspired by our spaghetti well, actually, our signature dish for the past 30 years, and it has become a customer favorite. These results give us confidence that we are on the right track.

Speaker 1

Our higher ticket offerings also offer abundant value. We brought back our popular all you can eat deal at RMB178 for 5 days with beef wellington, durian pizza, crayfish and other very delicious options to choose from, this campaign generated a lot of social buzz and became a strong sales driver, particularly for those people who love to indulge themselves with the all you can eat deal. We are also expanding offerings to capture our share of growing 1 person meal occasions. Just last week, we launched the Pizza Dough Burger Pizza Bao in around 2,000 stores with existing ingredients. This made to order burger features pizza dough buns freshly baked in store on daily basis.

Speaker 1

The inspiration actually comes from Chinese buns. So our pizza dough bun is chewy and fluffy. It's very unique and it's very different. It perfectly complements our Juicy Beef and Chicken Patties. The result is good, and we are confident that we'll unlock incremental sales.

Speaker 1

We aim to offer emotional value to our customers beyond delicious food. In quarter 1, we more than doubled the number of IP collaborations with top animations and games. These campaigns attract a wave of young customers eager to join the fund. Let's turn to Lavasa. Lavasa's dual growth engines, coffee shop and retail, are making good progress and driving synergies.

Speaker 1

We further reduced the CapEx of our latest small store formats and improved store economics. Our retail business expanded to premium outlets such as 5 star hotels and Michelin Star Restaurants. By growing the 2 businesses, we are building the Lavazza brand in China. Looking forward, Lavazza Group and we are planning to partner with a local regulatory for fresher beans, more competitive course and smoother operations. Now let's briefly touch on our Chinese dining brands.

Speaker 1

Little Sheep and Juanjihuan had a strong recovery last year. Huang Zhihuan remains a very resilient model with strong growth potential. Little Sheep has made good progress with their new one person hotpot module. We achieved initial success with the pilot stores in Shanghai, resulting in a robust pipeline with our franchisees. We are also expanding internationally, such as reentering the U.

Speaker 1

S. With a new Little Sheep store in New Jersey. As we expand to serve more customers and capture incremental traffic, we are pursuing greater operational efficiency to make our business even more resilient. In the spirit of our Restaurant General Manager 1 or RGM 1 philosophy, we launched Project Fresh Eye to assess our operational processes through the fresh eyes of our LGM. Our goal is to empower our LGM, supporting them better and faster.

Speaker 1

The scope covers all aspects from our restaurants to supply chain and back office. We aim to improve efficiency, enhance agility and drive cost effectiveness. We are streamlining processes and integrating resources to promote synergies across regions and functions. Technology will continue to play a big role in driving efficiency. We are starting to use generated AI to develop creative marketing and facilitate our recruiting processes.

Speaker 1

In addition, we benchmark against the industry to identify areas of opportunities and develop targeted strategies. We aim to be best in class and best in cost, passing on any cost savings to our customers and other stakeholders. Our ability to address our consumers' ever evolving needs allows us to connect with them emotionally and continually. Our pioneer digital capabilities, proprietary supply chain management and unmatched operational efficiency enable us to do this on a massive scale. These qualities set us apart from our competition and help us drive sustainable growth in this dynamic market.

Speaker 1

With that, I will turn the call over to Andy. Andy?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Joey, and hello, everyone. We delivered solid results in the Q1, driving sales, co op in profits and EPS growth despite a higher base. During the action packed Q1, we launched exciting offerings and took both strategic actions to expand our addressable market. At the same time, we are pressing on with our cost structure rebasing, driving operational efficiency to support long term sustainable growth. Let's now look at our Q1 performance in more detail.

Speaker 2

System sales increased 6% year over year, led by 8% net new unit contribution. Same store sales were at 97% of prior year levels, again a very strong performance last year. By brand, KFC system sales increased 7% year over year, driven by net new store contribution. KFC's portfolio reached 10,603 stores, adding 307 net new stores in the quarter. Same store sales were at 98% of prior year level, with 4% same store traffic growth and a 6% lower ticket average.

Speaker 2

Putting this into perspective, our ticket average in the quarter was RMB42. This is sequentially higher than RMB39 in the Q4 last year due to holiday impact. And it is also higher than RMB39 in the Q1 2019. Now in line with our strategy to drive incremental traffic, we offer higher ticket average products like whole chicken and beef burger, while enriching entry level combos. We also lower our delivery fees to capture smaller ticket orders.

Speaker 2

And we had nice rebound in breakfast, coffee and ice cream sales, which have a lower ticket average. Pizza Hut system sales increased 4% year over year, driven by net new unit contribution. Pizza Hut's portfolio reached 3,425 stores with record 1st quarter net new stores of 113. Same store sales were at 95% of the prior year level, led by strong traffic growth of 8% and a 12% lower ticket average. As Joey mentioned, we are strategically enriching our entry price pizza, 6 smaller party size options Pizza Hut tap into underserved customer segments and roll out to more locations capturing incremental traffic.

Speaker 2

Operating profit was $374,000,000 Our operating margin as a percentage of revenue was 12.6%. We're delighted that our core operating profit was not only stable, but also grew by 1% on top of the very strong performance last year. As a reminder, core operating profit excludes foreign exchange impact, special items and other items affecting comparability. Our positive savings in G and A expenses partially offset the year over year low restaurant margin. As Zhou Yi mentioned, we have challenged ourselves to strive for higher efficiency so that we can drive sustainable growth.

Speaker 2

Now let's go through our restaurant margins and key cost items. Our restaurant margin was 17.6%, 230 basis points lower than last year or 120 basis points lower on a comparable basis. The year over year difference was mainly due to high cost of sales and cost of labor, while our occupancy and other costs continued to improve. Total sales was 32.1%, 200 basis points higher year over year or 170 basis points higher on a comparable basis. We increased value for money offering, favorable commodity costs, superb procurement and efficiency gains from Project Fresh Eye allow us to pass the savings back to customers.

Speaker 2

Cost of labor was 25.4%, 80 basis points higher year over year or 60 basis points higher on a comparable basis. This was mainly due to last year's wage increases for frontline staff and higher rider costs as the delivery mix went up. We improved our labor productivity, which more than offset the sales leveraging impact. Occupancy and other was 24.9%, 10 basis points lower year over year or 60 basis points lower on a comparable basis. This improvement came from lower rent expenses as well as lower marketing and advertising expenses.

Speaker 2

Our G and A expenses decreased 10% year over year because of operational efficiency gains across the organization and lower performance based compensation this year. G and A expenses as a percentage of revenue was 4.7% in the quarter, improving from 5.6% a year ago. Obviously, the ratio would fluctuate with seasonality in sales. But for the full year, we aim to keep G and A ratio to be around 5%. Our effective tax rate was 26.9% in the Q1.

Speaker 2

The lower tax rate on a year over year basis was due mainly to less non tax deductible expenses. We expect the full year effective tax rate to be in the high 20s. Diluted EPS was $0.71 growing 10% year over year. Moving on to our Q2 outlook. As a reminder, the Q2 of last year was a phenomenal quarter.

Speaker 2

System sales increased 32% year over year in the Q2 last year. Operating profit last year was the highest among all second quarters. We also benefited from strong demand around Labor Day and Children's Day holidays last year. We recorded around RMB 12,000,000 in temporary relief and VAT deduction benefits, which is not expected to recur this year. So all these would again form a high base for comparison.

Speaker 2

Looking ahead to the Q2 of this year, we expect the tide to remain choppy. This will test our booby to adopt. We'll continue to execute on our strategy to drive incremental traffic with great value for money offering. Consumer are indeed more rational in their spending in the new normal, but they do respond well to our exciting offerings and campaigns. On the operational side, we will continue to work hard to improve the efficiency across the organization and pass along the savings to customers.

Speaker 2

For the full year, with a strong store pipeline, we are expecting to open 1500 to 1700 net new stores. In addition to investing for growth, we also returned a record $745,000,000 to shareholders in the Q1, including buying back 16,600,000 shares, which is equivalent to more than 4% of our share outstanding. Our strong cash flow generation and healthy cash position are what made this possible. At the end of the quarter, we had $3,100,000,000 in net cash. We are committed to return $1,500,000,000 to shareholders in 2024 and continue to drive our long term existing loan growth.

Speaker 2

With that, I will pass it back to Florence. Florence?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Andy. Now we will open the call for questions. In order to give more people the chance to ask questions, please limit your questions to 1 at a time. Operator, please start the Q and A.

Operator

Q and

Speaker 2

A. Thank

Operator

The first question today comes from Michelle Cheng from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hi, Joe, Yandi. Congrats for the still very resilient results, very tough comp. My question is about the same store sales and consumption trend. Given we know the offline traffic has been very bad year to date, but our same store sales, especially KFC is still pretty healthy. And you share the higher ticket size items going by like double digit and the transportation hub growth during Chinese New Year are pretty strong at 20%.

Speaker 3

I'm wondering whether you can share more colors about the different performance, including like a TLCD, dayparts, consumer cohorts or holiday versus post holiday sales. And is there any color on month to date trend and how we should expect into Q2 and Labor Day given Andy just mentioned that we had we also had a comp last year. So also wondering how we should look at the Q2 same store sales? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Michelle. I will recap a little bit of the Chinese New Year and then go to the quarter to what we are seeing right now. So as mentioned on the quarter 4 earnings release call last time, we anticipate a tough Chinese New Year because it was very high base. The situation was unique last year with the reopening and then there's pent up demand on traveling and then also we are a bit more well prepared with the new store with the store openings than our peers. And yet we deliver 6% system sales growth on top of 17% growth last year's quarter 1 and mainly leading led by the robust transaction growth and that's very encouraging.

Speaker 1

And with from the growth of the total 15% is transaction growth, we see building. For the 2024 Chinese New Year, we see the return to normal trading with more so available for consumer. Trading was robust and the translation hub, etcetera, the business was booming. And then we also see diverse demand, which I mentioned in my prepared remarks. On the one hand, customer like the value for money for the high ticket item, but at the same time, the functional need with lower ticket average is equally appreciated.

Speaker 1

And that's very strong recovery of the smaller ticket item from delivery all the way to coffee, breakfast, ice cream, etcetera. So all these are good. And then we also see the trend continue to see the trend of consumer behavior during holidays. So during holidays, they stretch and then after the holidays, they tighten up the belt a little bit. But the trading demand sequentially improved.

Speaker 1

And then if we move to the next trend, it's about the region, city, tier, location, etcetera. We see the regional recovery from the north recover the best because that was lapping on a lower base the year before. And Eastern China, Eastern part of China continue to be very resilient, which is brilliant. And then, of course, all region across China grew system sales. By 30 tier, as we have mentioned a few times before, the Tier 2 still performed the best and lower Tier 3 lapping strong, CNY last year.

Speaker 1

And the Tier 2 cities with regional hubs such as Chengdu, etcetera, continue to do really well because as I mentioned again in the prepared remarks, the living costs and housing price there are lower. So the trading is very robust, which is good. By location, sales at shopping mall, where we have most or have surpassed the 2019 level and the trading is robust and that's also very encouraging because it's not record value, but China last year actually add about 400 shopping mall to the base of our 6,000 shopping malls that we are tracking. And I don't think that many countries are still building that many shopping malls. And for 2024, that trend will continue.

Speaker 1

We estimate to have few more 100 shopping malls coming to China. And so and one other trend, delivery continues to do really well. And as you can see, KFC delivery sales actually increased by 14%, which is massive, 14%. That is consistent growth for a decade in this delivery business and it's driven by the smaller order delivery, which is something that we again mentioned in the previous quarter earnings release. That was our part of our strategy and worked pretty well.

Speaker 1

And going to the quarter 2, I think Andy can make a few comments about the quarter 2.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Michelle, for the questions. So I think for quarter 2, as we mentioned, we're committed to delivering compelling value to consumer. And again, like the strategy work really well. We're going to introduce more products and then try to execute some more engaging marketing campaign to drive sales. As in our prepared remarks, we have mentioned, we continue to see consumer to be more rational in spending, but they do respond positively to our new product introductions, our value propositions and also some of the fun marketing campaign as well.

Speaker 2

So that's what we're going to do more. And in terms of like the quarter for this year, just remind everyone, we have a very high base last year. Last year, we actually have seen 32% increase in our system sales and then also record profit last year in the Q2, which helped by some very strong performance during the Labor Day and Children's Day holiday sales. As well as last year, we also had some one time about $12,000,000 so which we're not expecting that to occur this year. So all in all, we will have a high base.

Speaker 2

But despite these challenges we mentioned, we focus on our strategy, our values, new product introductions, campaigns that resonate well to consumer. And then we also have mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have a project fresh eye and to further both our efficiency. And again, as we mentioned, we will try to find more savings, so that we can pass on to customer. And we do plan to continue to improve our G and A expenses. Obviously, that would fluctuate quarter by quarter, the ratio.

Speaker 2

But for the full year, we intend to keep it around 5%. So yes, so this is the plan there. But a couple of things I want to mention is that is worth keeping in mind. One is that our new store contributions, the revenue structure is changing as we increase the mix of smaller store and also franchise store, right, which would change the mix between franchise fees versus company sales. And also, foreign exchange, our operating currency is RMB and our foreign currency is USD, so we will continue to be impacted by the currency exchange fluctuation.

Speaker 2

Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Joey. Thank you, Andy, for the detailed explanation.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Brian Bittner from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thanks. As it relates to the operating environment, I realize it's a very competitive and promotional environment, which I think is driving a lot of the pressure to your average check. But at the same time, it is also helping you drive traffic growth. Your same store traffic was up 4% in the quarter, which is impressive. And I'm curious where this traffic is coming from.

Speaker 4

Is it new customers? Or is it coming from loyalty customers, just more frequency from existing customers? Can you unpack where the traffic growth is coming from? And Andy, as it relates to the average check declines, how long do you expect average check to be a headwind to your same store sales?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Brian. So I will take these questions. First of all, I would like to point out that the overall ticket average aligns really well with our strategic goal, which is to drive incremental traffic to our store. As you mentioned, we have seen pretty impressive things for transaction growth, both at KFC and Pizza Hut, which demonstrate that outside is working and the strength of our business. If you look at CEE, for example, it experienced 4% increase in same store traffic and Pizza Hut 8%.

Speaker 2

So that's good. Now when we talk about key A, the ticket average, it is very important for us to look at the yearly comparisons are influenced by a mix of factors, including delivery mix, product mix and also order size in the post COVID recovery. So however, I think it's worthwhile to look at the longer trend, which longer term trend because it will provide a clear perspective on our strategy there. For example, for KFC, the overall TA was RMB42 in the quarter, very healthy. That is a sequential increase from RMB39 in the 4th quarter due to how they impact, obviously.

Speaker 2

It's also higher than the RMB39 in the Q1 2019. And so again, like we are committed to manage the TA at KFC through a balanced approach over the long term. Our strategy has been focusing on money for money, introducing new product and also launching promotional campaigns when to meet consumer demand. Now we also have reduced the delivery fees to capture pandemic reopening, we definitely see some strong rebound in our sales in breakfast, coffee and ice cream item, as we have mentioned before. At the same time, we also have mentioned our high ticket items like whole chicken beef burger continue to do well growing the sales at double digit rate in the quarter.

Speaker 2

So this is a balanced approach positioned as well to enhance customer value and then also expand our market reach. Now on Pizza Hut side, as the brand continue to grow its network beyond 2,000 stores, we are transforming the business from a rapidly premium casual dining business into a more mass market operation. So we are realigning our market positioning with our pricing at Pizza Hut. We have expanded both our price range and also product range, offering more pizzas and other items below RMB50. We are also providing more options for consumer, such as our recently launched Burger, making Pizza Hut product more suitable for smaller party size.

Speaker 2

Now this approach, I think, should help us to expand our addressable market segment. We are glad to see that our strategic pricing strategy has been successful driving storage transaction growth in the quarter. So but while we are driving the ticket average lower at Pizza Hut, our focus remains the same, driving incremental sales and protecting profit and margin. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Thanks. I mean, our KFC and Pizza business, both are very big. So I just find it helpful maybe to highlight 1 or 2 things in the category to show the growth. Although when it translates to the total number, it might not be that big, but because our base is big.

Speaker 1

So while I give you an example, other than what Andy just said, our coffee business for KFC, KFC, number of cups of coffee actually grew by 30%. I mean, it does not show it in a big number, but for coffee, it's brilliant. So we sold about 50,000,000 cups of coffee for the quarter 1 alone, 30% growth, brilliant, very promising category and we only have 100 of those side by side stores right now. And as I mentioned earlier, we intend to grow it very aggressively. And Pizza Hut, one highlight here is the lower price pizza, which is something that we mentioned in the previous quarter and we use the pizza price below RMB 50.

Speaker 1

We have 7 choices in that category for the price lower than RMB50. And this small group of pizza and we of course intend to launch more at this price point, it gave us double digit sales growth for Pizza Hut. Well, the TC growth, which is the question you asked, of course, is even better. So that gives you a sense of how focused we are on driving the transaction growth. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Chen Luo from BofA. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Joe and Andy. My question is on the competition side. So in the past two quarters, competition has always been a key investor concern. So we also noticed that in the recent few months, our promotional intensity has increased. So based on our observation, compared with our last earnings call, do we think competition has actually further intensified or still largely stable at the moment?

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Well, honestly, competition has always been very intense throughout decades. We will continue to learn and evolve and grow with our competitors. But I just want to highlight it again and again that it's good to see competitors up their game and increase their investment in the industry. Last year, 2023, the industry actually grew at 20%, although it was rarely reported in the mass media. And then for this year or the year before 2023, the industry always grow at very nice number like double digit or much faster than the GDP growth of 5% or whatever the GDP growth is.

Speaker 1

So naturally, it attracts both domestic and international investors to continue to invest in this industry. So it's really not the best thing at all. I think what is important, Lawson, here is we have to remain quite open minded and continue to relearn and reconnect with our consumer. And that's exactly what we have been doing and we'll continue to do that. And we in the last few years, you can see that we learn from local players who launched Chinese burger.

Speaker 1

We learn it. We learn from other player about the possibility of the whole chicken. We learn from other competitor in pizza category the focus on the lower priced pizza. And that's how we compete in this market and we'll continue to stay agile. And the market will always be choppy, but that's okay.

Speaker 1

We are here to stay and it will continue to test our ability to compete. And our strategy is always very consistent for KFC, but it's about in the long term, we make sure that our ticket average is relatively stable by having high ticket average items such as the burger or whole chicken and then have the entry price product to grow the transaction and etcetera. And then for Pizza Hut, again, it's very consistent and to drive down the TA actually. 2017, our TA was 132, now it's 90. We'll continue to drive it down because that TATC strategy has to be consistent with our mass market store growth strategy.

Speaker 1

So we'll have some of the stable and consistent strategy to compete in this market. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Lillian Lu from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Joey and Andy. I have a question about Joey commented on the diversify the consumer demand right now. And there has been some widening so called the holiday effect. And are we seeing actually from store performance as well given that situation there is more gap between best performing stores or relatively worse performing stores or the stores in different locations, for example, the heavy traffic hubs, so more of an underlying bigger gap in terms of the store performance. And reacting to that, we continue to deliver better efficiency and cost savings.

Speaker 5

So trying to understand better from this challenge of more diversified self performance or customer demand, how we manage, keep saving more. I think Andy and Joey mentioned a little bit about trying to dip in a little bit better understanding for the ongoing cost saving progress. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Lilya. Well, first of all, I would like to report that for the more diverse demand between well, the sort of the splurge consumption during the holiday and a bit more tightening the bell after the holiday. That is not that unique. I spent 10 years in UK. Consumer Day are exactly the same despite the cultural difference or language difference.

Speaker 1

So we just learn to train our business better and better. So how do we deal with that? How do we meet the diverse demand? During the holiday, we focus on the high ticket high ticket trading like the buckets, the whole chicken, beef burger, so that our customer can splurge. But at the same time, we will also drive the TC like Chinese New Year is a great example.

Speaker 1

The location where customers merge actually is lower tier city and the transportation hub and tourist location. But in Tier 1 city, it's still very functional and China is a very big country. So we just would see what the trend and then we match and we deliver what customer want and not being judgmental about it at all. And then in terms of going forward and you can see in our store opening strategy, we're going to continue to accelerate and probably further accelerate our store opening in the strategic location like the transportation hub and suite location and also the mini store model. And these are very, very good models.

Speaker 1

The mini store model is what I mentioned earlier in the prepared remarks is very low cost investment, dollars 500,000 our normal investment is about $1,200,000 to $1,500,000 RMB now. So the smallest one is $500,000 is the model we tested and we are happy with that and that's for KFC and that's very good for the strategic location because the investment is low And it's also very good for the low tier cities because we see customers are going to more and more low tier cities right now. So we respond to it and we are very agile, very fast. And of course, to make the mini model work, the cost efficiency has to work. And again, to be specific here, the mini store model, the menu is only half of the menu of the normal cat seats.

Speaker 1

And that certainly helps. And then Monastore, the operating costs, including rent and labor is lower. Therefore, it was. And for Pizza Hut, I mentioned it in my prepared remarks, but it might not be clear enough. After many years of delivering new store return within 3 years, I hope you guys realize that in this particular quarter, we changed that to 2 to 3 years.

Speaker 1

So if you remember, when we start the Pizza Hut new store opening, the payback time is more than 3 years, 3 to 4 years. Then we improved to 3 years. And as of this quarter, 2024 quarter 1, Pizza Hut has finally improved to 2 to 3 years, which is brilliant. So it also means that we are more flexible to open this kind of better cave and new store in the strategic location that we want and also with better cost efficiency. We can go through line by line, but the new store payback is, thank you, Lilian.

Speaker 1

Thanks a lot to you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Anne Ling from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, thank you. Hi, management team. Thanks for giving me the chance to take a to ask a question. As regarding the cost side, we noticed that on the cost of goods sold, there's actually some increase in terms of the food cost. I'm just wondering like whether it is because of the promotions that we are offering that result in a higher promotional higher COS?

Speaker 6

Or is it because there are some new items, for example, with the lowering of the delivery costs and then we are also charging this RMB 1 or RMB 2 or RMB 2 packaging costs. I'm not sure whether this also reflected in the cost of goods as well. So maybe like you can share with us what is the outlook of the food cost, given the fact that if we look at the chicken price, year to date it was actually down 11%. So any chance that we will see some savings on that front? Thank you.

Speaker 2

And thank you for the questions. So when we look at the Q1 cost of sales, it's around 32.1%. It's around like what we have, if you talk about what we target about like 31 plusminus 1% range. In fact, if you look at KFC, it's actually within that and it has a little bit higher. And obviously, both, as we have mentioned on the prepared remarks, both our brand are focusing on driving store traffic, driving transaction growth in the store.

Speaker 2

And so we have stepped up value for money campaigns. We also have new product introductions and other promotional activities. So the result is good. We've seen system sales growth of 6% overall for the company. Now in terms of the commodity prices, we do have favorable commodity price in the quarter.

Speaker 2

And for poultry, we also have favorable commodity prices there. We do lock up our supply contract a quarter or so ahead of time. So we know that in Q3, we probably would also have variable commodity prices as well. However, because the chicken life cycle or raising the chicken life cycle is about like almost like quarter. And so we cannot provide a longer term outlook for you.

Speaker 2

Now in terms of the gain that we got from those commodity payable commodity prices and whatnot, as we have mentioned before, we do intend to pass the savings back to consumer so that they can get the good value that they have. Now for Pizza Hut, it's a little bit higher for the quarter because they did run the all you can buy the all you can eat campaign, which is great consumer demand, but the cost of sales is a bit higher over there. And we'll continue to calibrate, obviously, the supply chain and make it more efficient over time so that we can both drive sales and drive growth and protect profit as well. Thanks, Ann.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Speaker 1

By the way, Ann, one last comment. The reduction of the delivery fee has rather minimal impact on the margin because we have the 14 plus sales growth in delivery in KFC to offset that. So it's okay. And of course, before we launch it, we test it and we know it's going to be okay. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Okay, got it. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Ethan Wang from CLSA. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Good morning. Hi, Julie. Hi, Andy. So my question is on the delivery services.

Speaker 7

So post COVID, there was some concern that the delivery sales contribution might go down. But actually in the Q1, it held up pretty well. So has management seen any trend that delivery sales is more resilient than offline dining. And in that case, is that going to affect our planning on salary expense going forward? And I really want because we mentioned that in some cities, we are now cooperating with platforms.

Speaker 7

So how should we think about this? Is that deliberate kind of planning in terms of cost controlling? How is that going to help? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Yifan. In terms of delivery as a percent of sales, as I mentioned in the previous question, they have continued to improve and increase in the last 10 years. So the trend is not going away. And TFC right now is about 60% plus is from delivery and takeaway and then about 30% from sign in. And our store portfolio emerged to reflect that, right, because our store becomes smaller, become more delivery focused.

Speaker 1

Same as Pizza Hut, we have the satellite store that is very delivery driven. And for Pizza Hut, the delivery business, of course, is in the high-30s, too. So they will continue to grow. And there are 2 things that I would like to mention in our delivery sales going forward. One is, we are going for the smaller order size of the delivery business, because you will notice that traditionally and historically, our ticket average for delivery business for both KFC and P side is very high and probably slightly too high.

Speaker 1

So for KFC, we have reduced the delivery fee tested in quarter 4 last year and we rolled it out in quarter 1 this year to encourage and to grow the smaller order delivery business. And it was because it's hard for customer to make the choice when the delivery fee is too high when the order size is smaller. So it will so we'll continue to do it. And then Pizza Hut have a bit more work to do because we have to have enough one person new choice to make that happen. So well, look at it in a positive way, we have even more opportunity here.

Speaker 1

So one opportunity is the lower price pizza that helps because that encourage smaller order. 2nd is you if you're in China, you will know that we just launched the burger business, which by the way is very exciting. I love the burger for Pizza Hut as well. I love the burger from KFC. It's very different.

Speaker 1

The KFC one is more juicy and then Pizza Hut one is very unique. It's hard to describe how unique it is until you try it. So I really encourage you to cross the border center and try it. The dough is made of pizza well, the pizza bread pizza bun is made of the pizza dough. So it's freshly baked in the store and that alone is very unique and the beef itself is brilliant.

Speaker 1

And other than great product, it's 1 person new because the average ticket size for Pizza Hut is more than 1 person. So with that, we will continue to grow to sort of the smaller or the loan free business. And both are the right thing to do and has quite a bit of mileage there. When it comes to the platform rider, you guys know that for years years, we insist on using our own delivery rider because of the quality. Although it's slightly higher cost, we know that.

Speaker 1

However, time has changed. We have learned that when we sit again test it and so that we know that is the case. In select location, some platform rider, the quality is very good. So we test them in the quarter 4 last year and then we continue to test it in quarter 1 this year. Why this is important?

Speaker 1

Because this is Chinese New Year when the demand is very robust and we've had to make sure even when the demand is high, the quality is still good and we are very happy with the test. So for KFC, we'll continue to roll that out in select location on the condition that the quality is as good. But they are more affordable, so manage the delivery business margin. And then Pizza Hut, we have not started the Teflon rider mix practice yet. So that will be something to be followed.

Speaker 1

So I will pause here. Thank you so much, Ethan.

Speaker 7

Sorry, I know we're running of time. So when we mentioned selected locations, they're currently high tier cities, I assume?

Speaker 1

Sorry, I could not hear you. Select location, high tier. It's everywhere. We just we evaluate based on the quality. So it could be high tier city or low

Speaker 2

Got it. Thank you, Jerry.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Yih.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Shijin Ling from China International Capital Corporation Limited. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thank you, Joe and Andy. Congrats for another solid quarter results under a challenging base. So I have one question on the key coffee. We are very happy to see that we already have 100 independent or so called side by side K Coffee stores in a short time. And could you please tell us a bit more about the positioning and development strategy of K Coffee?

Speaker 8

So like regarding the pricing, the menu design, the store format, the store location, etcetera, what's our similarities and differences compared with the current main coffee players? And how could we give full play to our own advantages? What's the plan for the future store expansion? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Susie, I think the best way to find out is if you come to some of our cake coffee side by side store, then you'll figure out all of these very quickly. So let me sort of mention again for the K Coffee cups of coffee, the number of cups of coffee increased 30% for the 4 to 1, which is a very significant number. So we are very grateful for our customer support. So right now, we have 100 K Coffee stores side by side. Let's start with results, then we'll go through the details.

Speaker 1

The result is these are all profitable additions. Even at the price of 9.9 yen for a lot of coffee, we make our cost structure work. So as our shareholder, don't have to worry about the impact on the overall margin. So the way that it was is despite we sell K Coffee in all the KFC stores, but we also see the need for a dedicated space for customers. And you know what define a coffee store versus a fried chicken store?

Speaker 1

The coffee store is having this very lovely coffee aroma, it's the smell and the lovely space. So we create that space and at very small incremental cost because you right now see more of these side by side ks coffee store in lower tier city and top tier city because we open so many new stores every year. So we took advantage of that development and we will have 2 storefronts. 1 is KFC and next to it is KFC. And the trick here is we share the kitchen.

Speaker 1

So there's no incremental investment in kitchen. And you know that within our investment, the biggest portion of the CapEx is actually the kitchen. So that helps. And then the pricing is similar to what we sell in other KFC stores. The coffee is very affordable.

Speaker 1

The menu, they have something you need though. So if you come to our K Coffee shop, make sure you try our the gigantic egg tart. We sell 1,000,000 and 100 of 1,000,000 egg tart every year, but we also realize this gigantic egg tart is a brilliant, so it's a big portion of our K Coffee sale right now. So we do have some very unique product for the K Coffee shop and we'll continue to do that. Again, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, our growth strategy of side by side K Coffee Shop for 2024 will be aggressive.

Speaker 1

And what is aggressive, you'll see by the end of the year. Thank you, Sujian. Thank you, Joe.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's Q and A session. I'll now hand the conference back to Florence Lip for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Thank you, Tabeth. Thank you for joining the call today. For further questions, please reach out through the contact information in our earnings release and on our Web site. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Remove Ads
Powered by Quartr
Earnings Conference Call
Compass Group Q1 2024
00:00 / 00:00
Remove Ads