I would now like to hand the conference over to Steven Marks, Founder and Co-CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. This year marks a very special milestone for GYG. 20 years since we opened our very first restaurant in Newtown, Sydney. We are incredibly proud of the growth we have been able to achieve in this time and the people who have been there on this journey with us. We started GYG with a simple belief. Customers have been sold bad food for too long, and we wanted to do better. Our vision? To reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat. That means serving clean, Mexican-inspired food that is full of flavor and made with the best quality fresh produce. We will never compromise on our food or our people. These are the foundations to our mission to be the best and biggest restaurant company in the world.
We have a mindset and a culture in our business that prioritizes making the right long-term decisions so we can build a sustainable fast food model for the next generation. This year, we made some difficult choices, including the decision to close our U.S. operations, which we will come to a bit later on. Our conviction in the potential of this business has never been stronger. Moving now to FY 2026. This was another strong year for GYG as we focused on building momentum and investing in the foundations that will carry us into our next phase of growth. I will now take you through some highlights and note these exclude our discontinued operations in the U.S.. We reached AUD 1.4 billion in network sales, up 18% on the prior year. Our underlying EBITDA was AUD 85 million, up 29%. Our record underlying NPAT of AUD 53 million, up 30%.
Including discontinued operations, that is including the U.S. trading result and closure costs, we reported a statutory NPAT loss of AUD 27 million. Finally, we are happy to announce that the board has declared a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.406 per share, which includes a special dividend of AUD 0.144 per share. This brings the full-year dividend to AUD 0.48 per share. Our focus on food and guest experience has delivered good results this year. Our Australia segment delivered comp sales growth of 5.3%, underpinned by strong transactional growth. We opened 32 restaurants in Australia, in line with guidance. Across our network, we achieved an overall network restaurant margin of 20%, with drive-throughs achieving 22% margins. Our franchisees continue to perform very well and are generating strong returns on their investments.
We doubled the number of restaurants trading 24/7 to 36, and we now have 117 restaurants in our pipeline with commercial terms agreed at year-end. Our pipeline continues to grow in size and quality, and it is one of the things we are most excited about heading into the next year. This year builds an impressive track record of sales growth across our global restaurant network. Our strong sales growth continues to translate into very strong earnings growth, underpinned by the operating leverage that is embedded into our business model. This slide outlines progress we have made on our drivers of earnings growth during the year. Sales momentum continued to improve throughout the year, led by transactional growth. Like I just said, we expanded our network and grew our pipeline.
Our franchisees continue to be extremely healthy, and we are seeing strong demand for new restaurant openings, both from internal and external applicants. We continue to innovate in our kitchens, including adding new digital training tools to make it easier for our crew. One area we are particularly excited about is electrifying some of our cooking equipment in FY 2027 after successful trials this year. We continue to invest in digital and technology, with more of our guests choosing to use our app to transact, which brings exciting opportunities for more personalized experiences. We built our Order Management System, OMS, using AI in-house, and it is already live. We are seeing very strong results from its initial features, and we are just getting started. Finally, we have exited our U.S. operations and are pleased with the performance of our master franchise markets of Singapore and Japan.
I will now hand over to our CFO, Erik, to take you through FY 2026 performance.
Good morning, everyone. As Steven mentioned, it has been another year of strong growth in our Australian segment. A key highlight of the result is how our strong network sales growth has translated into even stronger earnings growth. Included on this slide is what GYG's earnings look like on an underlying basis, adjusting for the impact of accounting standards that cover leases, share-based expenses, and other non-operating adjustments. As you can see, the underlying earnings power of the company is very strong and growing, resulting in 33.9% growth in underlying EPS on a diluted basis to AUD 0.521 per share. This measure is important to understanding GYG's underlying performance, and it will be the basis on which dividends are determined on an ongoing basis.
We also incurred a material loss from discontinued operations in the U.S. during the second half, which I will cover in detail on the next slide.
The decision to exit the U.S. market this year was a difficult one. While we firmly believe it was the right one, we acknowledge the significant impact it has had, both financially and on our U.S. team. As Steven said, the wind down of our U.S. restaurant operations is now complete. We have completely exited nine out of our 10 leases, with commercial negotiations close to being finalized on the remaining sites. We have met all team member entitlements, and the U.S. class action has been discontinued. U.S. operations are now accounted for as discontinued operations, capturing both the trading loss of $15.2 million and one-off closure costs of $32.8 million. We expect the P&L impact to land at the lower end of our guided range of $30 million-$40 million, with any remaining impact in FY 2027 not expected to be material.
Also, in line with the guidance we provided in May, total cash exit costs are not expected to exceed $15 million, with $3 million incurred during FY 2026. While almost all lease exits have been agreed, most payments were made after 30 June 2026. Turning to our core markets in more detail. We saw good growth across Australia and Asia this year. In Australia, we saw comp growth across all day parts, with double-digit comps in breakfast and after 9:00 P.M. This was supported by more restaurants converting to 24/7. In Australia, we highlighted the great value offerings in our menu, with an increase in guest frequency year on year and an increase in value perception among our guests. We opened three new restaurants in Singapore this year, with both Singapore and Japan planning to open more restaurants in FY 2027.
In the Australia segment, we achieved a strong result of AUD 85 million in underlying EBITDA. This represents a 29% increase on last year, lifting underlying EBITDA as a percentage of network sales by 50 basis points to 6.2%. The health bar network continues to grow despite our decision to keep menu price growth well below the level of cost growth. Operating leverage still delivered, with network restaurant margins expanding 20 basis points to 20.3%, which was also supported by increasing mix towards higher-margin drive-throughs. Our corporate restaurants also delivered significant growth, with sales up 22% and earnings up 17%. As we flagged at the half-year result, corporate restaurant margins was impacted by lower corporate comp sales as well as the timing of new restaurant openings. I want to put the new openings into perspective.
In the last 18 months, we have opened 21 new corporate restaurants, all of which were ramping up during FY 2026. We also made the deliberate decision to invest additional labor in opening our corporate restaurants and delivering a better guest experience in the first few months. These investments are delivering strong results. Going forward, we expect a significant improvement in corporate restaurant margins heading into FY 2027 as newer restaurants continue to grow sales and the operating leverage comes through. Franchise and other revenue growth was driven by new franchise openings, higher franchise AUVs, and more restaurants transitioning to the tiered royalty structure. We saw effective operating leverage in G&A, which included a lower bonus payment in FY 2026. I will now hand over to Hilton to talk through restaurant economics, comp growth, and real estate.
One thing we are extremely proud of achieving is the strength of our restaurant economics. This year, we grew average drive-through average unit volumes to AUD 6.9 million, while AUVs for strip restaurants held up year-on-year at AUD 5 million. We opened 26 new drive-throughs in Australia this year, taking the total to 143. Network restaurant margins were circa 22% for drive-throughs and 18% for strips. Drive-through margins expanded, while strips slightly decreased. This reflects new restaurant mix effects and lower comp growth in strip restaurants, partly offset by our chicken strategy and only modest COGS inflation. To reiterate Erik's comment earlier, the health of our network continues to grow despite very low menu price growth, and that health has flown through to franchisee profitability during the year. As you know, the health of our franchisee network is critical to our collective success.
This year, franchisees achieved a compelling return on investment of 47%. This was contributed to by continued year-on-year growth in the median average unit volumes to AUD 5.8 million and restaurant margins expanding to 21%. We opened 19 franchise restaurants during the period and welcomed 10 new franchisees, including seven who transitioned role in Hola Central to become owners. We are very proud of this model, and we believe it will lead to continued strong performance of the business into the future. Now turning to comp sales. We talked to five key volume levers in our business, and we have made significant progress against each one of them throughout the year, layering in a number of enduring initiatives to enable us to deliver sustainable comp growth. On restaurant capacity, we are starting to see the operational benefits from our new Order Management System and continued investment in restaurant leadership.
Daypart expansion has been a key driver. We delivered positive comp sales growth across all dayparts, led by breakfast and after 9:00 P.M., which was further supported by extending trading hours across our network. Importantly, improving momentum in lunch and dinner drove the overall comp sales growth improvement in the second half. As always, menu innovation has been a key focus for us. We launched our Caesar range early in the year and our first two Australian LTOs, the Barbecue Chicken Crunch, and the Cheeseburger Cali Taco. These LTOs drove engagement with our brand and attracted new guests. On delivery and digital, we entered Australia's first exclusive strategic partnership with Uber Eats this year. Total delivery and digital orders now account for almost half of our network sales. We also became the first Australian QSR to integrate with Apple CarPlay.
Finally, marketing has played a crucial role in driving comp sales growth. Supporting the launch of Caesar and our LTOs, as well as other campaigns such as Double Protein, Minis, our value bundles, like the $12 Brekkie Bundle or the $12 Chicken Mini Meal, has contributed significantly to our sales movement through the year. Network expansion is continuing at pace. We finished the year with 117 board-approved sites in our pipeline, with commercial three having added 62 new sites during the period. Around 85% of the pipeline is drive-throughs. The pipeline is the strongest it has been and provides us with very high levels of visibility of future growth in the short and medium term, but also reaching our long-term aspiration of around 1,000 restaurants in Australia over time. I will now hand back to Erik to take us through our cash flow.
Thank you, Hilton. The company remains highly cash generative, with strong conversion of earnings into cash. On a continuing operations basis, operating cash flow was AUD 98 million and cash conversion was 120%, primarily driven by timing of supplier payments and the timing of construction payments made on behalf of franchisees. Capital expenditure growth this year was driven by corporate restaurant openings, refurbishments and maintenance, and new restaurants in progress. On a net basis, GYG spent AUD 26.5 million to build the 13 new corporate restaurants opened this financial year. We continue to see average capital expenditure per new restaurant in line with target, as outlined in our prospectus. This year, we also developed a more capital efficient model for our smaller, more regional sites that we will apply in future periods.
Following our share buyback activity during the year and payment of dividends, our balance sheet remains in a very good position. It provides plenty of flexibility for future network expansion, continued funding for our dividend, and additional capital management opportunities, which I will come to now. As I said, GYG is a highly cash generative business. Our hybrid corporate franchise model means a significant share of our earnings require minimal CapEx. At GYG, we will always prioritize investment in our restaurants, the highest returning use of our capital. Any surplus capital will be returned to shareholders through regular dividends, with a policy to return the majority of earnings, as well as an opportunistic buyback program when valuation is compelling. This slide illustrates how our capital was allocated in FY 2026, with AUD 45 million invested in restaurants and AUD 120 million returned to shareholders during the year.
This year, the board has declared a fully franked full-year dividend of AUD 0.48 per share. This represents an implied payout ratio of 90% of underlying earnings, consistent with our dividend policy of paying out the majority of earnings to shareholders. The final dividend declared for the year is AUD 0.406 per share and includes a special dividend of AUD 0.144 per share to retrospectively increase the implied payout ratio for the interim dividend, bringing it in line with the full-year. The significant step up in the final versus the interim dividend reflects the removal of U.S. losses, a larger earnings base, and a reduced share count following the buyback we undertook this year. Since October last year, we purchased approximately AUD 100 million worth of shares at an average price of AUD 19.58.
We are pleased to announce that as part of our capital allocation framework, the board has approved an extension of this buyback program by a further AUD 100 million. This provides us the opportunity to continue purchasing shares if valuation remains compelling after our higher priority uses of capital have been fully funded. I will now cover off on our outlook and guidance. Our medium-term ambition is unchanged. Our unit economics continue to be strong, and we remain confident in the underlying structural strength of the business. As we set out in our prospectus a few years ago, we continue to build towards a cadence of opening around 40 new restaurants per year in Australia. On average, around 60% of these will be franchised and 40% corporate. Around 85% of openings will be drive-throughs and 15% strip.
Our business model is expected to deliver earnings growth significantly ahead of revenue growth.
To recap on the drivers that will support this, our corporate restaurant margins will trend towards overall network restaurant margins as comp growth drives operating leverage in our restaurants, and the format mix shifts towards our higher margin drive-throughs. Our implied franchise royalty rate, which was 8.6% this year, is expected to move to approximately 10% as more franchisees transition to the higher tiered royalty structure. In addition, as existing franchisees' restaurants grow, including opening proportionally more drive-throughs over time, a greater share of sales will attract higher royalties. Finally, G&A as a percentage of network sales is still expected to trend towards around 5% as sales growth drives operating leverage. In terms of comp sales growth, our mid-single digit outlook reflects the level where our restaurant economics will continue to get healthier and will enable us to achieve the operating leverage in our model.
Our number one focus is being relentless on delivering the very best food and experience for our guests. When we do this, comp growth will take care of itself. As a result of these levers, we remain confident that underlying EBITDA as a percentage of network sales will reach approximately 10% over the medium term. The path there may not be linear, and that is because we will always prioritize making the right long-term decisions, even if it means some disruption in the short term. Moving now to FY 2027, we expect this to be another year of strong network and earnings growth. We are guiding to opening 35 new restaurants in Australia and for underlying EBITDA as a percentage of network sales to be in the range of 6.7%-6.9%.
The incremental openings versus FY 2026 are weighted to the back end of the financial year, so these are not expected to contribute materially to FY 2027 sales or earnings. We expect strong corporate restaurant margin expansion in FY 2027, reflecting continued comp sales growth and a mix shift towards drive-throughs. We expect comp sales growth to continue at mid-single digit levels in FY 2027. In the first seven weeks of the financial year, our comp sales growth has tracked above this at high-single digit levels, reflecting the timing of delivery campaigns and the cycling of a softer prior corresponding period. I will now hand back to Steven.
20 years on from that first restaurant in Newtown, our ambition to reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat remains unchanged. With a strong team and a clear vision for the future, we are making progress on our mission to be the best and biggest restaurant company in the world. I want to take a moment to thank our incredible team, our franchisees, our suppliers, our partners, and our guests for their passion and dedication to this business. Before we move into Q and A, I want to provide my perspective on the economy and reporting season so far. We are hearing a lot about low growth rates, inflation, and cost-cutting. At GYG, it is the complete opposite. Our price growth, at less than 2%, is well below inflation. We are paying our crew more. Our franchisees are growing. Our suppliers are growing.
We are delivering 30% earnings growth year-over-year. We can do this because we keep investing in our network, in our systems, and in our people, and that is driving innovation and ultimately productivity. Thank you guys for joining us. Now we will open it up for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Tom Kierath with Barrenjoey.
Morning, guys. Just a question on the corporate store margin in the second half. I think it fell 100 basis points. Just a couple of things there. Was there any impact from the Uber exclusive deal on the margins there? Second, how should we think about the investment in these new corporate stores? How long does it take those stores to get to maturity in terms of margins which are comparable with the rest of the fleet?
Yeah. Good morning, Tom. Good to chat. I just want to recap on corporate restaurant margins as a whole, then I will get to the half-on-half movement, because this is an important point. To start with, we are very proud of our overall network restaurant margin and the expansion that we saw during FY 2026. With corporate margins specifically, there are a number of factors that impacted FY 2026, and in order of significance, the first is comp growth for our corporate network. It came in lower than the overall network, primarily due to the higher weighting of strip and legacy restaurants. As we talked earlier, we continued to invest in menu price inflation, making sure that is well below the level of cost growth that we are seeing in the business, and that has paid dividends through increased frequency and guest retention.
The second factor after comp growth is the timing of new restaurant openings you have called out in your question. As a reminder, we opened, in the last 18 months, 21 new corporate restaurants, all of which we are still ramping up in FY 2026. To put that into context, that represents about a 30% increase in the size of the corporate restaurant network, a level that will not be repeated going forward. As you mentioned, we have also invested more in our labor in our new restaurants so that we can open these restaurants with more experienced crew. That is already translating to stronger sales and margin profile for our corporate restaurants. So if we put all that together, we expect corporate restaurant margins to improve significantly in FY 2027, and continue that momentum in the years to come.
Now, to come specifically to your question around the second half, all of that was happening because the timing of new restaurant openings were weighted towards the second half. So that is the first element. The second element is that our corporate restaurant margins are always lower in the second half because we have additional public holidays where a large number of our CBD corporate restaurants are shut during those periods. So of course, we have a lower margin profile. Specifically for the Uber deal, the Uber deals are working exactly as we expected in terms of the economics of our restaurants, and we are seeing a significant improvement in profitability as a result. So we are very happy with the way that is flowing through. But we did only see a part effect of that in terms of timing in the second half.
Going into FY 2027, that is one of the things that has given us a high degree of confidence in that margin expansion in FY 2027, and we are already seeing that play through in our numbers early in the year.
Thanks. Just to follow up, is the comp growth you are seeing now in the corporate stores comparable to the franchise stores? What is the difference there in, I do not know, the last quarter or since you have made some changes?
Yes. We are seeing very strong comp growth in our corporate network, if not slightly ahead of the franchise network.
Okay, great. Thanks, Erik.
Your next question comes from Caleb Wheatley with Macquarie.
Morning, Steven, Hilton, and Erik. Perhaps just a follow-up on restaurant profitability, but more in a broader sense, I suppose. Obviously, seeing Fair Work Commission decision around wages broadly still seems like in place coming through from a cost point of view, starting from food et cetera. How should we think about some of those components from a restaurant profit point of view? What else are you doing internally at the restaurant level to drive efficiencies? And, appreciate the pricing strategies well around the inflation, and not necessarily matching one to one. Perhaps we sort of think about all those moving pieces from a broader network profitability point of view.
Yeah, sure. I might comment, Caleb, just in the first part around some of the drivers, and then Steven may have something to add at the end. Firstly, if I talk labor, which is one of our biggest costs in restaurant. We have been absorbing labor cost inflation in this business for a very long time. Last year was close to 5% with the Fair Work decision. This year will be close to 5% again. As Steven mentioned earlier, we have been relentless in making sure that we are building productivity into our systems, our processes, our people and training, et cetera, to make sure that we can offset those cost increases in our business. Operating leverage is a massive part of that, and continuing to drive sales and the guest experience is how we can do that. So that is the labor component.
From a costs perspective, we are very happy with where costs is sitting, and that is post most of our contracts adjusting on 1st of July through the escalation process or escalator process. So we are very comfortable where that is sitting. As I said earlier, and Steven mentioned again, you will hear from us 100 times. Price is the last lever we use to manage our costs, and we are in a great position with many of our suppliers to make sure that that costs position stays in a good spot. So we are very happy with where that is.
As we look forward to things like the Fair Work decision around junior rates, we are pretty comfortable with the way that the investment that we have got lined up and some of the productivity initiatives coming through, whether it is the OMS, whether it is some of the additional ways we are using AI in our restaurants to make sure we are driving productivity and simply making it easier for our crews to execute and taking that admin away. We see continued margin expansion in all of our restaurants as we drive sales.
I think, Caleb, maybe just to build on what Erik said and just add one other thing. As we have said, we expect to continue to deliver mid-single-digit comp sales growth. At those levels, with the wage growth that is coming through from Fair Work and obviously the costs stability we continue to expect, and we have delivered operating leverage in our restaurants, which is really the benefit of our model.
Okay, great. That is helpful, and nice segue into my second question. Just keen to explore a little bit, if we could, just around the commentary on your comps over the medium term. If I wind back 12 months ago, from memory, it was more sequential improvement in costs quarter by quarter. That now seems like it is shifted, I would say a bit more qualitatively, but pointing the market more toward a full-year view around that mid-single-digit level supply sort of running ahead early. Is this sort of signaling that, not sort of maturity, but sort of signaling a longer-term focus on running around that level, just given the volatility around events and stores transitioning to 24/7, what have you? What is the sort of broader thought process around maybe shifting the commentary on that as we look into FY 2027?
Yeah. Thanks, Caleb. I will address the first part of that question, is around the timing of comp growth and the last couple of quarters and into FY 2027. I know Steven wants to say something about our philosophy for the comp growth guidance overall. Just as we know, we saw a significant improvement in momentum that we built throughout FY 2026, from Q1 to Q2, Q3 into Q4. The second half of that comp growth momentum really driven by transaction growth, driven by guest frequency. We saw great stable momentum in the business Q3 into Q4, and then also into Q1 this year. Q4 did see a small step back in comp growth, with Q1 this year seeing an improvement. That really relates to the timing of the delivery campaign, the Ding Dong campaign. Last year it ran in June.
This year it ran a couple of weeks later in July. As you heard us say before, we always time those campaigns for when it is best for our guests and best for our restaurants, not when it is best for the financial quarters of our business. That is really the only change in momentum in terms of the business. We really continue to see that continue at that mid-single digit level. I know Steven wants to—
Yeah.
—just say something around the philosophy around that.
Yeah. Thanks, Erik. I want to be very clear on this, that as always, we remain relentlessly focused on delivering two things, and it has always been these two things: exceptional food and exceptional experience for our guests. We will continue to be rewarded with great comp sales growth when we deliver that. As Erik was just saying, we see mid-single digit comp growth as a sustainable level for the network over time, and that is what delivers us incredible, obviously, restaurant economics, to make sure that our franchisees are incredibly healthy, and that drives us to that 1,000 + restaurants that will open up here in Australia. Variability in comp growth is the nature of the restaurant business, and at GYG that is no exception. We will continue, as we always have, to prioritize making long-term decisions that will set us up the next 10- 20 years.
As we always say, this is a generational business, and we do not worry about the next quarter.
Yeah. Appreciate the signaling. Thank you very much for the color, thanks.
Your next question comes from Shaun Cousins with UBS.
Hey, Shaun.
Shaun?
Five point. Oh, sorry. Pardon me. My mistake. Good morning, Steven, Hilton, and Erik. On G&A to sales, it fell to 5.9% in FY 2026, partly assisted by some lower bonus payments. If we have mid-single digit same store sales growth and some investments, and I assume possibly some bonuses come back, is there a risk that G&A to sales rises in fiscal 2027? Or can that continue to remain where it is or fall? I understand the longer term plan to get it to 5%, but I am just trying to think about that as a swing factor in that it was quite a helpful contributor to the EBITDA margin expansion you enjoyed this year.
Yeah. Maybe, Shaun, I will just jump in quick before I hand it over to Erik, to explain the impact on G&A. I want to highlight something that is important from a values perspective at GYG. One of our core values here is it is up to us. In the context of our decision to exit the U.S. market this year with significant writedowns we incurred and the costs this has had, the value we delivered to our shareholders was impacted. Therefore, it was not appropriate that we pay a bonus to our senior leadership team this year. However, the Australian segment did perform well, and there is a bonus payable to our all essential team and our operators here, but smaller than in previous years.
Just to pick up on your question, Shaun, you are right that as we head into FY 2027, G&A as a percentage of sales will not be a material contributor to the ongoing improvement in EBITDA to network sales that we expect for FY 2027. Yes, it was a contributor in FY 2026. We do not expect it to be a significant contributor in FY 2027. That is where we really see the corporate restaurant margins and our royalty rates seeing acceleration in those metrics this year.
Great, and that leads me to the second question, just around the franchisee royalty rate. When will you have all franchisees on the new structure? Can you talk a little bit if the Uber deal actually helps franchisee economics, and does that come back to GYG to some degree in a royalty benefit?
Yeah. Shaun, I will address the second part first, and I will come back to. Firstly, the Uber deal has a very significant improvement to our franchisees, that they get the full benefit of that. As always, we pass on full benefits of these types of arrangements to our franchisees. They are seeing obviously continued sales growth, but also improved economics as a result of the Uber deal. The primary way in which we benefit from that is through higher royalties as our franchisees continue to grow, and we invest in that delivery channel. As we have called previously, the Uber deal was designed to drive sales, and that is how we will benefit as a business going forward from a royalty perspective.
In terms of the transition to the tiered royalty structure, that is really a function of how our franchisees continue to roll through their franchise agreements, which is tied to the lease of the restaurants. The majority are already on tiered royalty structure. There are about 30 franchisees that are yet to transition, and they will transition progressively over the next few years as we work through that. As we guided, in the medium term, we expect that to work its way through to a 10% royalty rate over time.
Erik, apologies if this is in the pack, but how many franchisees do you have? Just how we can put that 30 into—
Sorry.
—comparison.
34 restaurants, and there is two—
I see. Yep. Okay. 34 restaurants. Thank you.
67 franchisees overall, and we also have the number of franchise restaurants, but it is 34—
Yep.
—restaurants.
Yep. No. Fantastic. No, that's great. Thank you very much, Erik.
Your next question comes from Ben Gilbert with Jarden.
Good morning, team. Just interested in terms of the makeup around the comps. How are you seeing average order value versus price increases, in terms of the drivers of that? I suppose looking forward from here, what are you thinking around price? You've obviously been very disciplined. And arguably, your value proposition's improved versus your peers at rate increased pricing more. Just interested in how you're thinking about maintaining that. What are you assuming in your sort of your qualitative guidance for pricing?
Yeah. Great. Thank you, Ben. Firstly, transaction growth continues to do the heavy lifting on our comp growth, which is exactly where we like it. As you say, I would say it's not arguably, we're definitely improving our relative value relative to competitors, so that's been great to see. We're very happy with where COGS are at at the moment, as I mentioned earlier, and we've already taken our price. We'll have to watch that closely, but as we said before, the last thing we're going to do is work our way through price to a price increase again this year. We'll have to watch and see, but I expect, in terms of that mid-single-digit comp guidance, that the majority of that continues to be transaction growth.
Are you seeing AOV falling, Erik? Because I know on some of those smaller brands—
Oh, yeah.
—you actually get better margin.
Yeah.
How are you seeing average order value?
Average order value has declined very slightly in the business. There are a number of factors that are contributing to that. The popularity of our Minis is a really big factor, which is something we are delighted about because we have great gross margins on our Minis. It is the right amount of food, and it just gives our guests the ability to come back more often. We have talked before about the value campaigns. Breakfast is also a contributor. These are great long-term drivers of the business, and it is having a small impact on average order value, but really nothing material, and it is not something that is showing up in our economics at all.
Perfect. Just final one from me. How do you decide what is a compelling price for the buyback? I appreciate your average price. You bought back something pretty good now, given where the share price is. But how do you, the board and management team, decide whether you should be buying back stock at any point in time?
It is a great question. We have a very strong view on value and valuation framework internally that we have agreed with the board. That valuation framework takes into account the significant growth in earnings and cash flows that we expect over the next few years. That valuation spits our share price, and then we put in on top of that a very high return hurdle in terms of our IRR that we expect to generate. Because we have high competing uses of capital in terms of the restaurants that we are investing in, and so it is appropriate for our shareholders that we demand a very high return on our capital. That is how we then get comfortable that when we discount that back using a very high IRR, that that valuation is going to be compelling for our shareholders.
Obviously, we will not speak to exactly the numbers. But as I said six months ago, we're delighted at the prices that we were buying our shares for. We're pleased to see an extension of the share buyback program.
Sorry, just to follow up on that. In terms of the competition for capital in the group in any one year, obviously it takes three years- plus to build out a store pipeline. It's not like you can suddenly accelerate materially store rollout in any one year. Where is the competing capital decision in any sort of year to year? Do you go into a new market like New Zealand, or is it you preserve capital to put into stores and try and pull forward rollout? What is the competing capital? Because you're obviously generating a lot of cash, and based on the great numbers you're printing today, you're going to have a truckload more cash coming out this year. I'm just how does that competition internally sit?
Yeah, Ben, I want to be very clear. The buyback does not compete for capital versus the other investment that we're making. We will always prioritize the investment in our restaurants, whether that's new restaurants or existing restaurants, and other opportunities to deploy capital, for example, in electrification, et cetera. But we will have surplus capital. Just this year, we have AUD 92 million of franchise royalties that require minimal CapEx, and so we will generate surplus capital. The majority of that will go to dividends. When we have surplus to that's when we have the opportunity to conduct a buyback. My comment earlier around the high return rate that we demand is just because our shareholders deserve higher rates of returns because of the rates of return that we earn in the rest of the business. We're not competing the buyback against other restaurant network investment.
That's helpful. Thanks, Erik. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond with JPMorgan.
Morning, all. I'm just going to go back to corporate margins again. Apologies for coming back to this issue, but just wanting to clarify a few things. You mentioned, I think, that same-store sales growth initially was lower in corporate stores than franchise stores due to the mix there. Erik, I just wanted to understand if franchisee margins also fell in 2H 2026, because that 110 basis point year-on-year move is surprising, particularly given that Uber Eats partnership. Also, does Uber Eats have a similar share of sales in both the corporate and franchise channels? Thanks.
Yes. Firstly, our franchise margins increased over the year. We detail that in our material. In FY 2025, they were medium franchise margin restaurants were 19.9 and increased to 20.8. We did see an improvement there. We expect that obviously to continue with full-year impact of the Uber deal. In terms of comp growth in our corporate restaurants, as I said, there has been a significant improvement, but really we saw that tick through as opposed to in recent months, rather than in the second half. That's where we see that come through.
Okay. Then just the timing effect you mentioned around store openings—
Yes.
—towards the end of the half, that all makes sense, but I just wanted to understand then, assuming that doesn't repeat and that is a normal cadence next year, should that margin bounce back into FY 2027? Just as a follow-up to that, the minimum wage backdrop and 18- 20-year-old transitioning to full minimum wage over the next three years, is that corporate store margin likely to bounce back quickly or is it going to face a few more headwinds just as we go step through this higher cost base?
Bryan, it's exactly that that's giving us the confidence that corporate margins will improve significantly into FY 2027 because these new restaurants are now hitting that point where we've invested in that initial guest experience. We showed at the half how our typical restaurant performance improved at our 12-month mark. These restaurants, a lot of them are drive-throughs, which do earn the higher margins as well. We've been very pleased with the margin performance coming through in our corporate restaurants recently, so we're very confident in that expansion into FY 2027. Hopefully that helps.
Okay. Thank you. Just a final one is just on the 24/7 conversions. The pace slowed from, well, in terms of just the raw number of 24/7 stores, there was 13 incremental in the first half and five incremental in the second half. I just wanted to understand if you've had a change of thinking around the economics of 24/7, or is this a prioritization of percentage margin over same-store sales growth that is also coming through a bit in your medium-term guidance? Thanks.
Bryan, it's Hilton. I'll take this question. As of the end of the financial year, we now have 36 restaurants trading 24/7. We also had a number of restaurants that have increased trading hours up to 24/3. For us, 24/7 obviously remains a high priority. As we've said before, over the long term, all of our drive-throughs will go to 24/7, so nothing has changed. In terms of obviously going 24/7, we see a significant interest from our franchisees in terms of wanting to move to 24/7. What takes the time is obviously council restrictions and getting the approvals, as well as obviously making sure that from an operational perspective, we are commercially ready, we have the teams trained to be able to execute.
Because most importantly is making sure that we can deliver a similar outstanding guest experience in late night as we do during the normal trading hours during the day. Nothing's changed. We'll continue to obviously focus and build on 24/7 from where we are today.
Okay. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Noah Hunt with MST Marquee.
Good morning, Steven, Erik, and Hilton. Just a question on the comp sales momentum. We do not have the same granularity in the deck on comp sales by daypart. I am just curious if you can add some color as to which dayparts are contributing the strongest speaking of trading update, but just more broadly year to date.
Yeah. Excellent. Happy to do that, Noah. I guess the first thing is, one of the things that has happened as we built momentum throughout FY 2026 is the improvement that we saw in our lunch and dinner comps. That is really important for us. That is the core of the business. Comping well in lunch and dinner is an important part of delivering on our comp growth ambitions and the guidance that we have outlined today. In terms of the shape of the composition of comp growth across dayparts, there is not much has changed from that second half where we built that momentum. Breakfast continues to comp very well at double-digit levels. 24/7 continues to comp very well. But we have seen that continued momentum in lunch and dinner, which has been great to see.
Great. Just the second question, if I can. The guidance on corporate restaurant margins is for strong expansion in 2027. Can you just help us to understand what this looks like in terms of relative to 2026? Obviously, it declined 70 basis points in 2026. Is this just about recouping that, or is it that and then some, with those stores maturing and comp sales improving?
Yeah. We are not going to give exact numbers in terms of what we expect for FY 2027. What I mentioned earlier with Shaun's question is that, we do not expect G&A to contribute materially, and we are expecting a significant improvement in overall EBITDA to network sales to that 6.7% - 6.9% mark. That is where you are going to see the corporate margins come through.
Right. Thanks, Erik.
Your next question comes from Sam Teeger with Citi.
Hi, Steven, Hilton, and Erik. Thank you. Can you help us dimensionalize the contribution from the Uber deal on the 5.3% comps?
Overall for the year. Look, delivery overall, year-on-year has been, in terms of share, has been quite stable. What's been great in terms of the Uber deal is that we've obviously realized the improved economics. We've got great levers available for us to continue to drive long-term sales. We haven't lost any sales as a result of moving to Uber exclusively. That was a big objective for us. We've successfully realized that. We're now in a more profitable delivery channel that we're able to have more levers to drive growth on. That's been a key focus for us, and we're very pleased with that result. In terms of the contribution to comp growth, as I said, because the delivery share is pretty stable, there's been an equal contribution from both non-delivery and delivery in our business, which is also something we like.
We are obviously driving both channels pretty hard to make sure we realize the best outcomes for our guests and for our franchisees.
Excellent. Thank you. My second question on rollout. I am wondering what proportion of that 117 site pipeline is expected to land and open in 2027 or 2028. Any comments you have around planning approvals in Australia, is it getting easier or tougher?
Hilton, do you want to catch this one? I am going to jump in there. So, of our pipeline drive-throughs, we have 117 in the pipeline. We have guided to 35 restaurants this year. So that is the restaurants that we expect to open in FY 2027. So obviously that leaves us with a significant pipeline into 2028 and 2029, which is great to see that filled because it gives us great visibility of a continued step up in our restaurant openings, which is something that is clearly evident in our medium-term framework. So, that pipeline, as Hilton mentioned earlier, that confidence that we can give it is in the best shape it has been, and we are very happy with where that is sitting.
All right. My last question. Can you help us quantify or dimension the EBITDA benefit that you expect from the OMS and AI initiatives over the next couple of years? Thank you.
Well, as Steven mentioned earlier, the number one priority of our technology and our processes and systems is to make it easier for our crews to execute in our restaurants. What that allows us to do is deliver a better guest experience, which ultimately comes through in sales. That is the focus. We are not getting into trying to decompose comp growth further into OMS contribution, et cetera. But what we are seeing is a material improvement in guest metrics in terms of complaints per thousand and reviews. That is because we are able to deliver more accurate orders to our guests, which is great to see. That will be the continued focus in that area.
All right. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Peter Meichelboeck with Select Equities.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just in relation to the pipeline, a bit of a follow-up from the previous one. Just wanted to confirm, during various stages of starting from site acquisition to approvals to construction and opening, are you seeing any sort of changes, either positive or negative in the timeframe there?
The timeframe has been pretty consistent over the last, call it 12- 18 months. Drive-throughs, by the time that our team identifies it and goes through board approval to, obviously, when we open it, is about two years. Strips are a little bit less. Nothing's really changed on that timeline with councils.
Right. Okay. Can I just clarify something? Just make sure I'm thinking about this the right way. I understand that there were 62 sites added to the pipeline during the year, and given 32 sites opened, sort of a net gain of 30, but I think the pipeline itself is only up 19. Am I sort of thinking that this is the right way, that there sort of seems to be 11 sites sort of dropped out of the pipeline, or have I got that completely wrong?
No, that's right. From time to time, we do see sites drop out of the pipeline. Quite often they come back at a later time. But yeah, the 62 that we're adding to the pipeline we're very happy with because there are these drop-offs, and so 62 is what allows us to do 40 over time. That's why you can't just have 40 new additions to a pipeline because your pipeline will decrease if that's the case. So that's why that 62 number is really important for our longer-term ambitions.
Yeah, understood. In terms of those ones that do drop out, given that you sort of have agreed commercial terms on these sites, is there any sort of cost associated with the ones that sort of drop out?
No, there's not.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Leo Armati with Bell Potter Securities.
Yeah, good morning Steven, and Hilton, and Erik. Just one for me on the bird flu. I know you haven't explicitly called anything out, and Ingham's today reported saying there's still no commercial outbreak. But just given your exposure to free-range chicken, I just wanted to know what it would look like if we saw an outbreak and the timing lag before it hits COGS, especially given the price discipline that you have and whether you'd have room to pass that through.
Yeah. Great question. Just to be clear, we will have chicken available at GYG always, and there will be no effect on our pricing or COGS based on our contract with Baiada. At an industry level, though, free-range right now are largely being housed indoors for safety, and there will be a decision probably around September 12 of what that is going to look like going forward, which will obviously affect Woolworths and Coles as well as GYG. But we will always have chicken at GYG, and it is obviously, all this is considered in our contract with Baiada Lilydale, with who we have an extremely strong relationship with.
Great. Thanks, Steven.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Mr. Marks for closing remarks.
Well, as always, thank you to everyone who has joined us, and make sure you get lunch at your local GYG. Love ya.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.