Over the past few weeks, the restaurant giant Groupe MTY has made some important announcements. He confirmed the purchase of Küto, moderately modifying his price list and posting higher profits.

Headquartered in Montreal, MTY has 80 banners, both in Canada and the United States, including Scores, Mikes, Sushi Shop, Thaï Express and Papa Murphy’s.
Küto

Let's start with the acquisition of Küto tartare counters, a young chain in full expansion across Quebec that was launched barely five years ago. Since then, 31 franchised branches have been opened, mainly in the greater Montreal area. Of those, 13 opened in the past year alone.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

“Küto is a young innovative brand that stands out for the quality of its products. It offers significant growth potential for the years to come, ”said MTY President and CEO, Éric Lefebvre.

Inflation

Due to global inflation, MTY has made the decision to increase menu prices, but with great caution, customer satisfaction always coming first. As a result, according to certain sectors, prices increase by 1% to 10%.

The CEO believes that his clientele is open to a certain increase in prices but does not want to hurt his banners and has thus decided to maintain an increase at very low rates.
It's not just inflation that drives prices up, but labor shortages too. Franchisees, lacking staff, must increase wages to attract new employees.

Benefits

Finally, the company announced its third quarter results, which beat analysts' expectations with sales growing in several of its banners. The growth is there, even though the company has lost 19,300 days of operations due to the closure of some establishments. A small percentage of the chain's 6,848 establishments are still closed.

For the period ended August 31, the company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $ 49.7 million compared to $ 43.4 million for the same period last year. Prior to the release of the results, analysts expected EBITDA of $ 43 million, according to Refinitiv.

Revenues, for their part, rose 13% to $ 1 billion. Sales are up 29% in Canada, 5% in the United States and 7% internationally. Online sales represented 16% of total revenues in Canada, compared to 15% in the same period last year. In the United States, this threshold is 21%, compared to 25%. Cash flow grew 21% to $ 46.6 million, which enabled the company to repay the equivalent of $ 35.2 million of its long-term debt.