RFG to close up to 200 stores after profits fall

Posted by Andrea Hogan on 5th March 2018

Retail Food Group will close 160-200 of its Australian quick service food outlets, attributing the closures largely to costly rent and declining shopping centre performance.

The news came as part of Retail Food Group’s (RFG) first half 2018 financial year results, which were delayed and saw RFG suspended from trading on the ASX.

RFG reported an underlying net profit after tax of AUD $24.7 million for the six months ended 31 December 2017.

The result was a 31.8 per cent decrease on RFG’s first half 2017 financial year results.

Retail Food Group is responsible for a number of quick service food brands operating in Australia including Crust Pizza, Donut King, Gloria Jean’s and Brumby’s Bakery.

Managing Director of RFG, Andre Nell, said RFG is tasking decisive action to address its financial underperformance.

“We have had to make some tough decisions about our business model, our franchise network and the value of some of our assets,” Nell said.

“The key to improving our performance is to simply what we do.

“We have all the assets we need to deliver our diversified business strategy – now we need to make the best use of those assets. The actions we are taking now will secure a sustainable long-term future for the Company and our franchisees’ businesses, and drive future value for our shareholders.”

The financial results were released after RFG was thrust into the media spotlight in late 2017 when a media investigation accused RFG of not appropriately supporting its franchisee partners.

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