I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Xavier Simonet, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, Harmony. Good morning, everyone. My name is Xavier Simonet. I'm the Managing Director and CEO of Collins Foods. Together with me today in Sydney, I have Andrew Leyden, our Group CFO, and we also have Chris Johnson, our General Manager, Europe, who's on the call from Germany. We were very pleased last night to announce exciting news about Collins Foods' growth acceleration in Europe, and particularly in Germany. We have previously communicated that Germany would become our second strategic growth pillar, and yesterday's ASX announcement reinforces this. If we turn to slide two, this is actually a slide we presented at our October strategy day in Brisbane. Today, we're specifically addressing the acceleration of scale in Germany, our second pillar of growth, alongside our core Australian KFC business. We announced yesterday evening, firstly, the acquisition of 8 KFC restaurants in Bavaria for EUR 31.1 million.
Bavaria includes the city of Munich, and the stores we've acquired are in Munich or around Munich. Secondly, the expansion of our development agreements with Yum! Brands, our franchisor in the German market, where our organic store development targets have been expanded. Thirdly, the extension and restructuring of our corporate franchise agreement with Yum! Brands in the Netherlands. Turning to slide three. This slide provides more detail on the restaurant network we will acquire. We are buying a network of eight restaurants, most of them in and around Munich, giving us an entry into the state of Bavaria, a state with the second-highest population and the second-highest GDP in Germany. It is a high-quality portfolio of restaurants in attractive locations with strong economics, superior to our existing German network.
The acquisition consideration is EUR 31.1 million, equivalent to an acquisition multiple of just below 6x restaurant level EBITDA in our first year of ownership, post completion, and is expected to be immediately EPS accretive for shareholders. Please note that the EBITDA we're referring to here is on a pre AASB 16 basis. The acquisition increases our German store network by 50%, creating presence and scale in three key German states, including big cities as well, like Düsseldorf, Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart. It also unlocks restaurant development opportunities in Bavaria and positions Germany very well as Collins' second strategic pillar. I will now hand over to Chris Johnson, our General Manager, Europe, who will go through the reasons why Germany is an attractive market to invest in. Chris, over to you.
Thanks, Xavier. Thank you, and good evening, good morning from Munich. As you can see on slide four, from the chart on the top left, KFC is significantly under-penetrated in the German market compared to some of our major competitors. KFC has about 1/5 the number of restaurants of the market leader, despite being well-known and well-regarded among consumers. From the chart on the bottom left, you can see that this under-penetration is even more pronounced in the states where Collins Foods is present. The map on the right shows how we, once the acquisition is completed, are building a network across the southern part of Germany, with Collins covering major cities of Munich, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Stuttgart, the most attractive parts of the German market. Turning to slide five, the graphs on the left and right show both the population and GDP by state in Germany.
Collins will operate in the leading three states in both measures, and together these states represent over 50% of the total population and GDP of the country. This gives us significant runway for expansion when you consider the under-penetration compared to competitors mentioned on the earlier slide. I'll now hand over to Andrew, who will take you through some of the other aspects of what we announced yesterday. Over to you, Andrew.
Thank you, Chris. Let's move to slide six. In addition to the acquisition, we're also very pleased to announce the expansion of our German development agreements with Yum! Brands. We've lifted the development target to 45-90 new stores over the next four years, compared to the previous target of 40-70. This extends the organic growth runway, and we are confident that we will be able to invest the capital the business is generating into high returning new developments in Germany. We also announced a revised corporate franchise agreement with Yum! Brands in the Netherlands, including an extension of three years to the end of 2029. Under the revised agreement, Yum will resume product and marketing responsibilities from the first of January 2027.
More in line with the market management structure in place in Australia and Germany and indeed many other markets around the world. Our marketing team members will transfer to Yum before the first of January, 2027. The service fee we receive will be adjusted to reflect these changes. However, we don't anticipate the changes will have a material impact on the profitability of the Dutch business. Importantly, these changes will enable us to focus fully on what we do best, and that is running great restaurants and, of course, continuing to focus on improving the profitability of our Dutch operations. Now turning to slide seven. This slide talks to the current trading, which reflects year-to-date trading through to the 8th of March, 2026.
Australia continued to grow in both total and same-store sales, with both accelerating in the H2 of financial year 2026 to date, with total sales growth up 6.2% and same-store sales up 3.2%. Germany continued to see good momentum on total and same-store sales growth in H2 to date at 9.1% and 4.1% respectively. In the Netherlands, total sales were up 4.1% in H2 to date, while same-store sales were slightly lower. Of course, our focus remains on operational profitability in the Dutch market. We are pleased with these results, especially given that both Germany and the Netherlands were impacted by severe snow conditions during January.
Finally, the company has reaffirmed the previously provided guidance for the full year, with Collins targeting mid- to high-teens growth in group underlying net profit after tax in financial year 26 versus financial year 25. I'll now hand back to Xavier, who will round up.
Thank you, Andrew and Chris. On slide eight, I would like to wrap up our presentation today by emphasizing the key investment highlights that Collins Foods represents for investors and existing shareholders. Our Australian business is resilient and highly cash generative. We are well established across multiple states in Australia, and our network of restaurants accounts for around 35% of the total number of KFC restaurants in Australia. Our second growth pillar in Germany represents a significant opportunity for profitable growth for Collins Foods. We also continue to be laser-focused on operational excellence, driving all key operations metrics and controls to optimize customer and team experience and financial value for our shareholders. We also have a long-term partnership with Yum! Brands, the owner of KFC and our franchisor. The announcement yesterday night is another milestone in what is now a very successful 50-year business relationship.
As I said earlier, two days, today's announcement or last night's announcement is all about our second growth pillar, Germany. The acquisition in Bavaria increases our German store network by 50%. We're accelerating, building traction, and driving profitable scale. We have now presence in the three most attractive German states with strong store economics in our existing store network and in the network we're acquiring. The acquisition unlocks development opportunities for Collins in Germany, and we are increasing our organic store development targets in Germany to 45-90 new restaurants over the next four years. Finally, as Andrew just mentioned, we have reaffirmed our targets for the year. Thanks again for joining the call, and we now invite the questions. We've got probably about 20 minutes. Thank you, Harmony.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speaker phone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Tim Plumbe from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Congratulations. Looks like a good acquisition there. I've got a bunch of questions, but I'll just keep it to two and then jump back in the queue. The first one, if that's all right, on Germany and the assets. 18.8% EBITDA margin, do we compare that to your German portfolio that I think did about 21.3% EBITDA margins in FY 2025? If that is the case, how do we think about synergies at the store level or store level optimization that you can do? Also, how do we think about incremental costs coming in at the corporate level for this part of the portfolio, please?
I'll start, Tim. It's Andrew here. Yeah, I think we previously issued store economics for on a post-AASB 16 basis. So, it you know, we don't know what the post-AASB 16 numbers will look like for this acquisition because we you know, we have to do that work and obviously we've got to do the acquisition accounting. On a pre basis, though, this portfolio delivers superior economics to the German network. And I expect that would be the case on a post basis as well. The driver of that is just the size of the restaurants. The average revenue of the restaurants is about just under AUD 6 million per unit, whereas our existing portfolio is around about that 4.5 mark.
Because of the, you know, the larger revenues coming through that, we get better fixed cost coverage and we get better earnings as a percentage. It's. We're talking superior economics to the existing German portfolio. If you think about these restaurants, Tim, they are centrally located or located in central suburbs in Munich. And one of them in particular is right in the bang in the middle of Munich as well, so exposed to really high levels of traffic. It's really an AWT-driven economic outcome.
To answer the second part of your question, Tim, our immediate focus in Germany is twofold. The first one is to be able to build up a pipeline of great sites and open great restaurants that are going to hurdle, and we've got strong and disciplined financial metrics that we need to meet.
We're building up capability in the German market to be able to identify those sites and be able to accelerate on growth as quickly as possible in a disciplined manner. That's one focus. The second focus is to make sure we've got the right structure in place to operate the network of restaurants. There's a format that is established in a young KFC system that we're going to follow to make sure that we follow processes and are able to deliver operations excellence.
Great. Thanks. The second question, just on the Australian business, looks like it's holding up quite nicely. Can you talk about the operating environment from a discounting perspective? Have you had to do more discounting than you did in the H1? How do we think about the flow through to that in terms of the GP margin? I think you did, like, 51.6% GP margins across the whole group in the H1 2026.
Yeah, thanks, Tim. Yeah, I mean, our the profitability of our Australian business is as we predicted when we gave the guidance. You know, we normally do see just by virtue of public holidays primarily, we'd normally see slightly lower margin coming through the business in the H2. Exactly what we predicted when we communicated to the market at the full year.
Great. No material change from a discounting perspective?
Well, you know, I think there's always been a focus on providing value for consumers. That's not changed. Some good innovation, providing value to consumers, it's an important part of the brand's architecture.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Caleb Wheatley from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, Xavier, Andrew, and Chris. Just wondering if you might be able to give us a bit more detail in terms of exactly how this acquisition came about, particularly sort of the intentions from the seller and, you know, what you sort of see as Collins being able to bring to the eight restaurants rather than another owner, please.
Chris, do you want to answer that question?
Yeah, thanks. Hey, Caleb. Good evening. Good morning to you. The German franchise community is about two dozen strong. Collins is well regarded. We're the only franchisee I've shared in the past that sits across all three of the Yum boards, the ad board, the ops board, and the business model committee. We're in constant dialogue with a lot of franchisees, and we've just, you know, established good relationships. We had dinner with the seller this evening, and he got a bit emotional in giving his almost farewell speech to his restaurant general managers who joined us for the dinner.
It came about through relationships, Caleb, and you know, we're as shared before, we're you know always on the lookout for portfolios that would be accretive or strategic or both, in the market. We're well pleased, well chuffed, and as is the seller, as they see Collins as the ideal buyer to take his restaurants and his portfolio to the next level.
If I can add one dimension, which is a relationship with Yum! Brands, our franchisor. As we mentioned, it's a 50-year relationship. We've been opening KFC restaurants in Australia for a long time. Our partnership in Europe is growing, and we want to support, of course, Yum and KFC in the acceleration of their development in Germany, but also they're supporting us. It's a great partnership we're enhancing and strengthening.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Just a second question, if I could. You spoke to the 6x multiple from a restaurant level, the EBITDA point of view. Can you just give us a bit of a feel for sort of what typical transaction multiples might look like in Germany or, you know, Europe more broadly, if possible? If I could, we should be thinking about some incremental costs from an overhead point of view, or is this sort of purely just sort of bolting the restaurants on, please?
I'll go first, and Chris, if you wanna complement with any responses, please do. Yeah, I'd say this is a typical transaction. You know, there haven't been that many transactions historically, so arguably we're setting a bit of a precedent, but we think it represents good value for the seller and good value for Collins shareholders. I'd see it as relatively typical. You know, the multiple changes when there's competition for assets, you know, but you know, as Chris outlined earlier, we have a good relationship with all franchisees, and we've ended up where we've ended up, and we're very happy with it. Chris, I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add to that.
Just on the incremental piece, Caleb, I'll just, you know, reiterate Xavier's comment from earlier, which is we're being incredibly deliberate around ensuring that the headcount that is going into the German market is not as a consequence of one acquisition, but as a consequence of our broader strategic intent, which is to build that pipeline of high quality sites and ensure that we can train and then run them to the standards that we set. I wouldn't necessarily attribute significant incremental G&A because of this acquisition at all.
Caleb, maybe one final point. The acquisition, yes, it's accretive at an EPS level. It's eight restaurants, highly profitable, so we're very happy with that. Clearly, the bigger opportunity is development. You know, having presence in the state of Bavaria now, and the other two states that we've outlined, which contain you know the most populous, attractive cities, is the big prize. That's why we're doing what we're doing. The development pipeline is the thing that we're very interested in. Clearly we'll be disciplined about where we invest. You know, that's the really sizable opportunity.
Okay. That's clear. Thank you very much. Really appreciate the call.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sean Zhu from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Sean.
Morning, team. Congratulations. Can I just do a follow-up on this new development agreement target, 45-90 new restaurants is still a very wide range. What are the key gating factors we should consider here? Is it consumer environment in Germany, site availability or anything else we can consider here, please?
I'll start, Sean. Thanks for your question. Yeah, look, we've left the range wide because, you know, clearly we'd like to target the higher end of that scale. The key thing that, you know, we're gonna find as we go through this journey around development is making sure that we find sites that meet our financial hurdles. Put simply, that's why we have a wide range. You know, we want to make sure that we're investing in good locations that deliver really strong economics, and we'll do the work necessary to achieve that. That's really understanding the demographic profile of locations, competition, potential cannibalization, all the things that you'd expect us to look at. We want to make sure that we're developing good restaurants. We want to make sure they are high quality.
The acquisition is a great start for that because the economics are really strong. We want to make sure we're delivering high quality returns for shareholders. That means picking great sites. We've left the range intentionally wide for that reason.
Our core message, Sean, is that we announced a strategy last year, and we're executing on that strategy, through accelerated development in Germany, but also the acquisition of this network that complements our existing geographies. We're still very focused on making sure that we're doing that in a very disciplined way and delivering a strong return to shareholders.
Great. Thanks for the color. Second question, just a very quick one. Could you please tell me what's the blended comp sales growth in Europe for the H2 today?
I mean, we'd rather give the numbers out by country, Sean, and then, you know how many restaurants we have in the Netherlands and how many we have in Germany. I think it's important to do that because the countries are operating differently at the moment. You know, Germany has been growing strongly. The Netherlands, as you're aware, has been a challenging market for a while for different economic reasons, most of them macroeconomic. So we'd rather keep them separate, but if you want to blend them, feel free. You know, I think as a rule of thumb, you can use the number of restaurants that we have in the market to get that blended average.
Strategically, Sean, our objective is different as well. In Germany, it's all about accelerated growth, of course, based on strong metrics and strong returns. It's about acceleration. In the Netherlands, the focus is more on making sure we turn the business around and drive profitability through our existing network of stores, and then we start again growing, when we're ready.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Ross from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Morning, Mark.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just one. Do you have further appetite for acquisitions or is this it for now? Or are you still open to inorganic growth opportunities in Germany? If so, do you have enough capital? How do you balance future acquisitions against the pipeline that you signed up to?
Thank you, Mark. Our immediate focus is to integrate the network we've acquired and make sure we continue accelerating on development. We're building up a strong pipeline of stores in Germany that need to hurdle, and then it takes time and efforts to execute and build those stores and start operating them. That's our immediate focus. Of course, as we've always said, we remain open to opportunities to acquire a business and other businesses and other networks of restaurants in Germany. That's not an immediate focus for us.
Great. Thanks.
There was a question on capital allocation there as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, clearly this acquisition is one that we can absorb based upon our current capital structure. I think if we were to do other things, then we'd think about what the best way of allocating capital would be and what the right capital structure would be. Yeah, clearly this one is something we can embrace within the constraints of our current funding requirements. No concerns around that. I think philosophically, we just want to invest where we can deliver a good return for shareholders. That's our goal, and we'll allocate capital accordingly.
Very clear. Thank you. Maybe just one more, if I may. Just on German penetration as a whole, you guys have called out that KFC is under-penetrated relative to a McDonald's, Burger King and Domino's. What level of penetration do you and Yum believe KFC can get to in time? How do you guys think about that internally?
Chris, do you want to answer that question?
With pleasure. Hey, Mark. I think the primary focus for the Western European team is setting a multi-year goal to overtake Burger King. That's a whole country effort. That's not a Collins only effort. I think we've said it before that having multiple franchisees developing the market across you know Europe's biggest economy is what we need to nourish the advertising boards to create more brand awareness to in turn drive sales. You know, the Yum team are targeting those I think it's 750 is in their sights to become the solid number two in the market over you know over the call it the medium term.
For us, you know, to repeat, you know, we've got this wide range of 50-90 over the next-
Over the next four years, my team in Germany, with support of the Dutch team, we're hard at work on building that quality pipeline.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Ferrier from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Morning, James.
Morning, Xavier. Morning, gents. Thanks for your time. First question is in relation to the higher unit economics for these 8 stores that you're acquiring. When you compare it to the existing stores that Collins Foods operates in Germany, some of those are legacy sites that were coming from a much lower starting point some time ago. Is it your view that these acquired stores and the unit economics that they're delivering right now is more indicative of where you see new store opening potential unit economics and perhaps future acquisitions? Is that the sort of unit economics we should be using, or should we be reverting to what the existing store network is delivering and what you've referenced in previous updates?
Yeah, I'll start James and Chris, if there's anything I don't cover, then please jump in. I think in reality, James, it'll be site by site, that'll determine what the economics are gonna be. You know, if we find great locations in the middle of Cologne, for example, you know, that's one city that we're very interested in. Yeah, you know, I mean, I think it'll all be dependent upon the PSAs that we predict, AWT being average weekly revenue from a restaurant. We may get better outcomes there. Clearly, we'll be looking outside of the city centers as well in high traffic locations or high pass-through locations where there's a lot of car traffic. Just clearly drive-through is a channel that's important to us as well.
I think it'll be dependent on the sites, the availability of great locations, that'll determine what the economics are gonna be. That said, we're not unhappy with our current German economics. As you know, they are, you know, the gross margin level are comparable. At an EBIT level, they're slightly lower than Australia, but still very strong. I wouldn't be unhappy if we developed at that level. I think clearly, you know, if we can lift our aspirations towards where the acquisition economics are, then all well and good for shareholders. I think time will tell. We'll continue to update the market, but clearly site selection is a very important part of determining where our economics will end up. Chris, anything you wanted to add to that?
No, Andrew Leyden, I think you've nailed it. It's site by site and, you know, the. Again, I think we've said it five or six times on the call now. It's just being incredibly deliberate in these early stages to be sure that, you know, the first restaurants that go from pipeline to execution hit those hurdles so that we just gain, you know, continue to gain confidence in our ability to execute against the plan.
Thanks, gents. Second question for me is the conditional exclusivity and right of first refusal rights that you have in those two initial markets. Has that been extended to Bavaria or parts of Bavaria?
Chris?
Thanks, Xavier. James, in the state of Bavaria, it's what Yann-David Lecoq would call open territories. There is no exclusivity or rights of first refusal. The ones that we've referenced in the past are maintained in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia.
So if I c-
Great.
If I can add, James and Chris, I think the important thing is that there's a lot of white space because there's such a big gap between KFC and the number of stores of KFC in Germany and the other brands, that there's a lot of white space, and we want to try to be the first mover, and be able to open early as many restaurants as possible, of course, within constraints, great sites, profitable, great return, but there's a lot of white space. Yeah. James, maybe just to complement Xavier Simonet's comments around white space. Well, clearly there is a lot of white space, and we don't think that exclusivity is necessary, frankly, in some of the regions that we're operating in.
There are other franchisees, of course, that, you know, I think Yann-David Lecoq would wanna encourage development with as well. Yeah, we're not worried about that. I think this is a high-quality opportunity. It's down to us to be disciplined about where we select our sites.
Yep, understood. Thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Thanks, James.
Probably going to take one or two more questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mike Mayo from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. I'll be quick. Just a couple. Can you give us, I guess, an update in the current market of what the timeline is from identification to opening of a site? Like how long does that take in Germany?
Chris, as the guy in Germany right now, do you wanna take that one?
Hey, Mike. Good morning to you. We're not being evasive, but that's really a site dependent. You know, live examples would be, you know, we target an existing restaurant in a city center that has a permit or a zone for the specific use. You know, we could open the site in under 100 days, all dependent on how quick we can get contractors activated to be on site. You know, maybe other more complex greenfield or rezoned projects might be multi-quarter or even multi-year long-term strategic projects. Of course, we're targeting more of the former and not the latter.
It really depends on the specific micro-sites. It's why we're building pipeline, you know, multi-years out to be sure that we've got the balance of sites that we can convert quickly, but also ensure that we're giving ourselves the breathing space and enough time to convert, you know, slightly more trickier, but also more strategic sites that take longer to convert from a permitting perspective.
I guess following on from that, can you actually give us a number of the sites that are within the pipeline, just to give investors confidence that the organic store growth will come through just after, I guess, the experience we've had in the Netherlands? Can you kind of give us a number of, like, what is sitting in that pipeline at the moment? Like, is there enough to reach the bottom end of that range, given it is kind of a four-year period, and some of the rollout can take a couple of years? Just any idea of, like, how much is actually in process or in the pipeline at the moment.
We're not sharing the specifics of the pipeline, Mike, but you know, we've got you know, the pipeline is multi-year across four. Yeah, we're hard at work to be sure that we don't just meet the base, but you know, achieve as we can when we find the sites that hurdle. We're not gonna share a specific number tonight.
Yeah.
No problem.
Mike, I'll just add a comment on top of Chris'. I mean, suffice it to say that the pipeline's building all the time and, you know, we're confident we'll find good sites. I think that what we'll do is prosecute those sites to make sure they're gonna deliver good returns to shareholders. Your comment with, in relation to the Netherlands is not about not being able to find sites. You know, we've intentionally held back on development to resolve some of the economic challenges that the macroeconomic situation in the market has forced upon the QSR sector. That's intentional. It's, you know, we could go out and find sites tomorrow, but, you know, we've made a decision in the interest of shareholder value to focus on profitability.
At the right time, I think the Netherlands will be an attractive market. I just don't see that happening in the short term. Germany, conversely, is a high quality shareholder value creation opportunity, and that's why we're grabbing it with both hands. Yeah, you know, I think we just need to make sure that we're delivering good returns for shareholders. I just wanna make that point again and again, because it's not just about store numbers, it's about the profitability of the locations we select. Yeah, we're confident in the pipeline, and the pipeline continues to build.
To come back to a point we've made before, Mike Mayo. In terms of resources, this is our key focus in Germany, investing in resources that drive development and acquisition to be able to continue building up a good pipeline of profitable restaurants and be able to execute on that as quickly as we can. Harmony
No problem.
Yes, go ahead, Mike. Sorry.
Oh, I said no problem. I was just gonna say if I could just quickly squeeze in just if you guys could quantify the impact of weather in Europe on the same store sales growth?
I haven't done the math, Mike Mayo, if I'm really honest. I mean, we did have severe weather events, particularly in the Netherlands. But as you've seen from our numbers, we've been able to you know, absorb that impact. And we've ended up delivering, I think, what, reasonably good same store sales numbers and reasonably good total sales numbers year to date. I couldn't tell you what the math were, but clearly the impacts. In the days of the impacts, I mean, the impact, you know, that impact was material. Obviously, once the weather dissipated, we were able to recover our position.
No problem. Regardless, yeah, it looks like a good result. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks very much. Harmony, I'm not sure if we have more questions, but we're probably going to have to wrap up.
Thank you. Not a problem. I will just hand back to Mr. Simonet for closing remarks.
I'll just like to say thank you to investors and analysts for joining the call. We look forward to continuing to work with you and have a great day.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.