Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc.’s selective promotions of core products helped first-quarter same-store sales increase 1.6 percent globally, but the pace of growth slowed somewhat compared with last year, the company said Wednesday.
The Atlanta-based quick-service chain reported a decline in net income of $12.9 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with $13.6 million, or 58 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenues increased 3.4 percent, to $82.2 million, in the April 17-ended quarter, compared with $79.5 million in the first quarter of 2015.
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The global same-store sales increase of 1.6 percent included a domestic same-sales increase of 1.1 percent, compared with 7.1-percent domestic growth a year ago.
Popeyes executives said the chain increased its domestic market share of the quick-service chicken segment to 26.3 percent, rising from 24.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015.
International same-store sales increased 6.2 percent during the quarter.
The chain added a net of 25 restaurants during the quarter, for a total of 2,569 restaurants systemwide.
For the year, Popeyes projected same-store sales would be between 2 percent and 3 percent systemwide. New restaurant openings are expected to range between 200 to 235 units, including 85 to 100 international locations and three to five new company-owned restaurants.
Cheryl Bachelder, Popeyes CEO, said the chain is making progress against its new Strategic Roadmap.
“Despite the very promotional QSR landscape, our guests continue to value our quality food and innovative new product offerings and respond well to selective promotions of our core products,” Bachelder said in a statement. “We are excited about our future as we begin executing our key strategies, which will help us to achieve our long-term growth goals.”
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