Good morning. Welcome to our 2025 preliminary results teleconference. We will wait two minutes for all the participants to log in. Thank you very much for your patience. Good afternoon. Welcome to Sphera Franchise Group earnings call to present the preliminary 2025 results. My name is Zuzanna Kurek, and I am Investor Relations Officer at Sphera Franchise Group, and I will moderate today's call. Before we begin, I would like to mention that this call is being recorded, and that the recording will be updated on our website later today. As stated on the call invite, by joining this video conference, you automatically and implicitly consent to being recorded. If you do not consent to being recorded, please leave the call.
In terms of the organizational aspect, we'll follow our standard call setup, which means the management will deliver a presentation outlining the preliminary 2025 results. Later we'll have a Q&A session. Please note that all the participants are put on mute. If you would like to ask a question, please type it in the chat box. Feel free to do so during the call. We'll answer all the questions in chronological order as soon as the presentation of the management is over. As always, I would like to mention that we might be making forward-looking statements today during this call regarding the future performance of Sphera Franchise Group. The actual results may differ materially. We encourage you to review the disclaimer that we have included in this presentation, which you can now see on the screen.
This disclaimer applies equally to all statements made in today's call. Let's kick off the call. I would like to introduce the management that is here with me today and will present our financial results. I am joined today by Călin Ionescu, Chief Executive Officer; Valentin Budeș, Chief Financial Officer; Monica Eftimie, Chief Marketing Officer. Happy to have you back, Monica. Thank you for joining us. I am pleased to announce we are joined for the very first time by two General Managers representing our iconic brands, Marian Gogu, General Manager of KFC, Romania, and Costin Muișă, General Manager of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, Romania. I will pass now the floor to our CEO, Mr. Călin Ionescu, who will share some insights about our performance in 2025. Călin, please.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. We meet again today to officially close 2025 and share with you the result of a year that was, without doubt, a complex and challenging one for the business environment. Thank you for your presence and for the constant trust you place in the Sphera Group. 2025 was yet another year that tested our agility, discipline, and capacity to adapt. We operated against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop market by fiscal pressures, persistent inflation, and a more cautious consumer sentiment, particularly in the early part of the year. In this environment, our priorities were clearly defined: to consolidate our operational safeguard profitability and position the group for its next stage of growth. We responded with decisive measures to streamline operations and optimize our cost base, the effects of these actions become increasingly visible in the second half of the year.
The Q4 confirmed that we are moving in the right direction, marking the strongest quarter of 2025. Romania remained the primary engine of growth, accounting for 85.7% of total revenues, and representing the market where we hold the strongest operational position. Italy returned to a positive trajectory with a 2% increase in sales, while the Republic of Moldova continued its solid performance, delivering a 19.7% year-on-year increase. This geographical diversification continues to provide balance and resilience in the current economic and political environment, both locally and internationally. At the portfolio level, KFC remains our strategic cornerstone and the foundation of our operational stability. Taco Bell continued to be the group's most dynamic brand, reaffirming its growth potential and strong resonance among young urban consumers.
For Pizza Hut, we advanced our streamlining and repositioning efforts with a clear and firm objective: to restore sustainable profitability. As part of this process, we made the decision to close seven Pizza Hut units that had been consistently underperforming operationally and generating a negative cumulative EBITDA contribution. The context in the second half of the year accelerated a decision already grounded in a structural assessment of the network. We expect that existing demand will be absorbed by the remaining operational units without materially affecting customer access, and we have prepared relocation option within the Sphera network for all impacted employees. The process was carried out with the agreement of our franchisor, Yum! Brands. At this stage, we do not anticipate additional closures. We continue to rigorously monitor unit-level performance indicators.
We expect the positive impact on operational profitability to become visible in the 2026 results. Pizza Hut remains a strategic brand within our portfolio, supported by a solid consumer base and a differentiated presence in the local QSR market. In the last year, 2025, we also advanced meaningfully in diversifying our portfolio. The integration of Cioccolatitaliani marked our first step beyond the traditional QSR category and into concepts with a pronounced experiential dimension and accessible premium positioning. This represented a strategic test and learn initiative, enabling us to expand our operational expertise in a complementary segment and to evaluate new avenues for value creation. Building on this foundation, we subsequently announced the addition of the Hard Rock Cafe franchise to our portfolio, a strategic step that marks our entry into the global lifestyle and experiential dining segment.
If Cioccolati Italiani represented our first move into diversification, Hard Rock Cafe, it's a natural extension of this trajectory. It strengthens our ambition to develop a more balanced portfolio, anchored in strong, distinctive brand with meaningful long-term growth potential. Most recently, we announced our intention to expand the Taco Bell brand into the Republic of Moldova, with the first food court unit in Chișinău, planned to open in the Q2 of this year. 2025 was not merely a period of adaptation. It was a year in which we reinforced the foundations for our next stage of development and advanced strategic initiatives that will shape the group's evolution in the years ahead. In 2026, our priority remains sustainable growth, with a firm focus on profitability, carefully calibrated investments, and the continued strengthening of each brand's competitive advantage within our portfolio. Thank you for your trust and long-term partnership.
I will now hand over to my colleague, Valentin Budeș, the group's CFO.
Thank you very much, Calin. Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us today. I will walk you through the 2025 financial results in detail. Amid the challenging market environment and headwinds from macroeconomic volatility throughout 2025, Sphera Franchise Group delivered the performance broadly in line with the revised guidance, meeting its updated financial targets. This performance reflects our ability to adapt swiftly to changing economic conditions, our operational and financial discipline, and our continued commitment to transparency and delivering sustainable value for our shareholders. In the Q4 , we observed a clear turnaround in sales at group level. This improvement was insufficient to fully offset the significant pressure rising from the weakened consumptions and elevating operating expenses, which appeared in the first half of the year.
This Q4 performance strengthens our confidence in efficiency measures and operational adjustments implemented throughout 2025 that will generate more tangible benefits in 2026. 2025, we reached RON 1.6 billion in preliminary consolidated sales, up 1.5% versus 2024 if we are looking to the performance excluding IFRS 16. This year showed a clear sequential improvement after a slightly softer Q1 . Performance accelerated progressively, with Q4 becoming the strongest quarter of our year, with RON 420 million, which is up 3.7% year-over-year. Romania remains our core market, generating RON 1.4 billion in sales and representing over 86% in total turnover.
Italy delivers solid growth as well, with 2.4% increase, while Moldova recorded the strongest expansion rate in the group portfolio. These results reflect the geographic diversification of our group and the growing contribution of the newer markets. At brand level, KFC continued to be the main growth engine, with total sales of 1.4 billion RON, accounting for 86% from total sales. Taco Bell remained our fastest growing brand, with strong double-digit growth of 16.2%, confirming its relevance among younger urban consumers and the success of our development plan in the major Romanian cities. Pizza Hut was slightly below last year as we focused on the network optimization, while Cioccolatitaliani is in its early development phase.
Overall, 2025 was a year of stabilization and gradual recovery, with a visibly stronger second half and improved the exit moment into 2026. Let's now look to the evolution of our key financial indicators. Again, all the figures are excluding the IFRS 16. Starting with expenses, restaurant and G&A combined reached RON 1.5 billion in 2025, up approximately 5% versus previous year. The increase was consistent across quarters, reflecting network inspection, expansion, inflationary pressure, and the continued investment in the capabilities. Moving to restaurant operating profit, we closed 2025 with RON 152 million, which is down 22% versus 2024. The decline was more pronounced in the first half of the year, while Q4 showed a more moderate decrease, indicating improving operational performance toward the year end.
As a result, normalized EBITDA reached RON 148 million, a decrease of 16% year- on- year. Similar to the operating profit, the performance improved throughout the last part of the year, with Q4 showing positive momentum if we are comparing to the previous quarters. Overall, while profitability was under pressure in 2025, mainly due to cost increase and softer first half performance, we see stabilization and gradual improvement in the second half, providing a stronger exit into the new year of 2026. Turning to Q4, this was clearly the strongest quarter of the year. The sales reached RON 420 million, up 3.7% year- on- year, marking the highest quarterly growth rate recorded in 2025.
This reflects gradual stabilization in consumer demand in Romania, the main market, and the positive impact of our value-focused pricing strategy, which help us maintain the stable traffic and volumes throughout the quarter in our restaurants. Restaurant expenses increased 5.7% year-on-year, slightly outpacing the sales growth, with an expense ratio of almost 90%. However, the food and material costs remain well controlled, increasing only marginally and improving as a % of sales, a clear sign that cost discipline is taking hold. EBITDA amounted to RON 49.5 million, up 3.3% year-on-year, supported by improved sales dynamics and better cost management at the restaurant level. Excluding the normalized items of RON 2.2 million related to the closing and mandatory relocations, normalized EBITDA grew even stronger.
We are speaking about 7.9% increase. Net profit for the quarter decreased 7.4% year- on- year, mainly due to the normalized items of RON 6 million related to the closures and the relocations. Normalized net profit increased 15.8%, reflecting improved underlying profitability and stronger operational momentum at the year end. Importantly, same-store sales returned to positive territory, i.e., 1.1% year- on- year, reversing the negative trend from the previous quarters. Q4 confirmed that the measures implemented throughout the year are delivering tangible results, the fact that we are entering 2026 from a more stable and balanced position. At the top line, restaurant sales reached RON 1.6 billion, which is up 1.5% year- on- year.
A resilient performance given the macro challenges we faced, particularly in the first half of the year. Moving down to P&L, we see the restaurant expenses grew 5.1%, outpacing revenue growth and compressing our restaurant operating profit to RON 152 million, which is down to 22.1% versus previous year, which I already mentioned. This was primarily driven by the payroll inflation and the broader cost pressures across all the categories. Normalized EBITDA came in at RON 148 million, with a margin of 9.4%, reflecting the 16.4% decline year-on-year.
The food and material costs were broadly stable as a percentage of sales, and our cost control efforts partially mitigate the raw material inflation. At the bottom line, the normalized net profit stood at RON 72.7 million, down 25.2% versus the previous year, which was impacted by the elevated cost base in the H1. The key message is that while 2025 was a challenging year from a profitability standpoint, the trajectory improved significantly in the second half, and Q4 showed clear signs of stabilization, setting better foundation for 2026. On the business development side, 2025 was an active year for our network expansions.
We have opened seven new restaurants: three KFC units in Romania, including one drive-thru and two food courts, two Taco Bell food courts units in Romania, and one KFC drive-thru in Italy, and of course, our first Cioccolatitaliani, which was an inline unit in Italy. We also closed one underperforming KFC in Bari, in Italy, as part of our ongoing network optimizations efforts. As of December 31st, the group operated 179 restaurants across the three markets. KFC remains by far our largest brand, with 131 restaurants, out of which 110 in Romania and 18 in Italy, plus three units in Republic of Moldova. Pizza Hut accounts for 28 units in Romania. Taco Bell grew to 18 restaurants, of...
also in Romania, we're still having 1 Pizza Hut sub-franchise in Romania, plus the Cioccolatitaliani restaurant in Italy. In Q1 2026, we already inaugurated two new KFC restaurants in Italy and Bucharest. Now, let me turn to the capital market performance of 2025, which in terms of share price evolution, Sphera declined 6% over the course of the year, and the total return index, the Sphera total return was down only 1%, a more moderate decline once the dividends are factored in. Liquidity was also softer, down 13% year-on-year, reflecting the broader investor caution in terms of current environment.
It's worth putting this into the context because BET index delivered an exceptional 46% performance in 2025, with the BET TR up to 55. While our share price underperformed the market, this was largely a reflection of the margin pressure and earnings decline we have experienced during the year, not a structural concern about our business, though. On shareholder remuneration, we maintain our commitment to returning cash, paying RON 2.13 gross dividend per share with two events, one or of RON 1.09 in June and one with RON 1.04 in December. As we enter 2026 with improved operational momentum, we remain focused on delivering the improvements that will support the re-rating of our stock over time.
My optimism for 2026 is grounding in the encouraging trends observed in Q4: same-store sales returning to positive territory, an improved food cost ratio, and the stabilization of the personnel expenses from a share of sales point of view. The normalization related to the restructuring and the closures reflect targeted measures with a clear objective, which is improving efficiency and restoring sustainable profitability across the portfolio. The conclusion is clear: Q4 confirmed that the recovery is gaining traction, even though full year 2025 results remain heavily influenced by the cost pressures of the first half. We enter 2026 from a stronger position, supported by measures already reflected in our year-end performance and by improved operational disciplines as well.
Our focus is to transform this stabilization into a sustained return to profitability, with the benefits of efficiency materializing consistently throughout the year, rather than being concerned in one single quarter. This was from me, and thank you very much.
We're going to pass the floor to Marian to cover the KFC brand performance.
Thank you, Marian.
Thank you for the opportunity. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here today. It's a pleasure to join this call for the first time and to personally share with you the progress we've made from a sales perspective for the KFC brand across the three markets we are operating: Romania, Italy, and Republic of Moldova. I will start with KFC Romania. As you review our performance, I'm pleased to highlight that KFC Romania delivered a solid rebound in the last quarter of 2025, marking a significant positive shift after a challenging year. Same-store sales grew 1.8% year-on-year, effectively reversing the negative trend that had persisted for most of 2025. This improvement reflects both a renewed appetite among Romanian consumers and the tangible impact of our strategic investment, including the restaurant we opened during the year.
On an all-store basis, US Food Romania achieved 3.8% year-on-year growth in Q4, driven by the combination of improved same-store performance and incremental sales from new units. Throughout 2025, KFC extended its footprint across Romania through the opening of three new units: a drive-thru restaurant in Galați, enhancing our presence in an increasingly important format for convenience drive-in customer, and two food courts units in Iași and Pitești, contributing to stronger coverage in the dynamic commercial hubs. These openings support our long-term growth strategy and position the brand for sustained performance in the years ahead. Despite the cautious consumer environment in the first half of the year, the recovery we observed in Q4 confirms the resilience of the KFC brand and indicates that demand is stabilizing. Now we'll go to the performance in Italy.
KFC Italy experienced a more challenging last quarter in 2025. Same-store sales declined by 3.6% year-over-year, while all store sales decreased by 1.4% year-over-year. This made Italy the only KFC market within our group to register a contraction during the period. The results reflect tougher market dynamics, heightened competition, and a softer consumer environment, which together put pressure on performance throughout the quarter. Despite these challenges, we continue to optimize and refine our footprint in the Italian market as part of our long-term strategy. In Q4, the group opened a new KFC drive-thru in Udine, enhancing our presence in format with strong potential for convenience-led growth. At the same time, we strategically closed one unit in Bari during Q3, ensuring our network remains efficient and aligned with market demand.
Italy remains a strategically important market for us, with meaningful long-term opportunities. However, the Q4 results clearly show that the environment is more competitive and more sensitive compared with our operations in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. We continue to monitor trends closely and adjust our strategies to ensure the brand is well positioned for recovery and future growth. Now we'll move to Moldova. KFC Moldova delivered the strongest same-store performance across the entire group in the Q4 of 2025. Same-store sales increased by 8.1% year-on-year, while all store sales grew by 8.3% the same year-on-year. This is a remarkable acceleration, especially when compared to the previous quarters of the year, during which same-store sales were slightly negative.
Although we currently operate only three units in KFC in the market, Moldova market, the results continue to highlight the robust potential of the KFC brand in the country. The strong Q4 performance was driven by sustained consumer demand, improved macro consumption trends, and the consistency high brand relevance of KFC within the local market. These indicators reinforce our confidence in Moldova as a market with solid growth prospects and further opportunities to expand our presence in the future. I will conclude here, and thank you for your time.
Thank you. Good afternoon. This is also my first time joining you on this investors call, and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to walk you through the latest sales performance of Pizza Hut and also Taco Bell in Romania. I will begin with Pizza Hut. In Q4 2025, Pizza Hut continued to face pressure, with sales declining by 1% year-on-year, both on same-store and all-store basis. This performance reflects the ongoing challenges in driving traffic and maintaining momentum, particularly given the brand's greater reliance on delivery, a segment that remains intensely competitive within the broader QSR market. Profitability remained a key area of concern for management throughout the year.
In 2025, Pizza Hut recorded a restaurant operating loss of RON 2.1 million, when excluding normalized items of RON 2.7 million, the brand generated a restaurant operating profit of RON 0.6 million, compared to RON 1 million in the previous year. While these adjusted results demonstrate some underlying resilience, the overall negative performance reinforced the need for decisive action. As a result, management proceeded with streamlining the network, taking the difficult but necessary decision to close seven units in the following weeks, units that recorded below expected operational performance and a significant negative impact on financial results. This initiative is aimed at restoring the profitability and long-term sustainability of the Pizza Hut business, ensuring that the brand operates with a healthier footprint, better aligned with current market dynamics and consumer behavior.
We remain focused on stabilizing performance, optimizing operations, and positioning Pizza Hut for a more sustainable trajectory going forward. Moving on Taco Bell. As we review the Q4 performance for 2025, I'm pleased to highlight that Taco Bell once again stood out of this as the strongest growth engine within Sphera portfolio. The brand delivered exceptional results, reinforcing its strategic importance for the group. In quarter four, same-store sales increased by 4.3% year-on-year, a clear signal of sustained consumer demand and the continued relevance of the Taco Bell proposition in the Romanian market. Total sales across all stores surged by an impressive 15.5% year-on-year, reflecting not only robust underlying performance, but also the incremental contribution of our newest restaurant openings.
During the quarter, we expanded the network with two additional Taco Bell restaurant in Bucharest, one in Promenada Mall, and another in Sun Plaza Mall. With these openings, our portfolio reached 18 Taco Bell units by year-end. Taco Bell remains the fastest-growing brand in Sphera, and its 2025 performance further validates both the strength of consumer appetite and the brand's significant scalability potential. We are confident that Taco Bell will continue to be a key pillar of our growth strategy moving forward. At the beginning of this week, Sphera announced that we'll take Taco Bell to a new market, the Republic of Moldova, and plan to open the first unit in quarter two. The new unit will be a food court format located in Shopping MallDova in Chisinau. The Republic of Moldova becomes the second market in the region where Sphera operates Taco Bell after Romania.
Considering the brand performance in Romania, we believe that this is a natural next step in our regional growth. That is all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Now I would like to invite Monica to share the final part related to marketing activity.
Good afternoon. Welcome to our call. It is great to be back. 2025 proved to be a challenging year from a marketing standpoint. Consumer behavior in the QSR segment demonstrated increased financial restraint, with dining-out patterns noticeably more cautious compared to previous years. The marketing agenda across all brands became exceptionally dynamic, mirroring the intensified competitive landscape. To achieve our sales targets, we relied on tactical initiatives and value-driven campaigns. I will highlight only a few examples of the product innovation and campaigns we brought to market in the last quarter of 2025. At KFC, three campaigns stood out at the year-end, with a focus on innovation and Christmas tradition. Crazy Cheesy, our 6th main campaign of the year, with 360 communications and focus on innovation, featured a warm, cheesy sauce, burger wrap, and loaded fries to increase sales and transactions.
The initiative was aimed at both KFC heavy users who are looking for innovation and KFC light users willing to try new products and sauces. The Glazed campaign, A secondary campaign targeting Gen Z, with a dedicated communication plan aimed at increasing transactions, especially among regular users. The novelty consisted of a new Korean sauce paired with a wide range of products, from a new burger to hot wings. The campaign included a successful pre-launch phase under the name of KFC Secret Menu. Christmas Bucket, the nontraditional campaign during Christmas, with three sixty communications as well, focused on the iconic Christmas Bucket, aimed at generating sales by increasing the number of transactions related to sharing occasions.
This year's novelty was the Create your Christmas Bucket concept, having it as its main objective, support for our bucket category, which emphasizing the idea of sharing. All three campaigns achieved positive same-store sales growth, contributing to a strong Q4 top-line performance. For the KFC app, we continue to focus on a new deal platform with the objectives of increasing transactions and sales in this particular channel by generating app downloads and increasing the user base. In December, we released the Advent Calendar, another dedicated KFC app initiative with different offers, which helped increase order frequency and sales within the app. Now moving on to Pizza Hut. At Pizza Hut, we navigated a very active year, marked by a strong emphasis on value and innovation as key sales drivers....
This strategic focus translated into particularly dynamic and intensive marketing calendar, especially in the Q4 . Garlic Cheesy Bites, the final campaign of the year, focused on one of our most iconic crusts, cheesy bites, enhanced with a garlic-flavored cheese filling, an ingredient highly appreciated by Romanian consumers. The campaign was communicated nationally across digital platforms and street billboards, with the main objective of driving sales. Crafted Flatzz, a campaign where we launched a new range of pizzas designed for individual consumption occasion, was communicated, its communication emphasizing a highly competitive price point of 20.9 RON. The campaign has as main objective increasing transactions among light users. Halloween tactical campaign. For three weeks around Halloween, we launched a limited time black crust pizza recipe featuring themed toppings.
The initiative allowed us to remain culturally relevant during the season and to resonate with the younger segment of our target audience. Q4 also marked the launch of group offers. At the end of November, we introduced four new group focused offers available exclusively through our website and mobile app, targeting consumers seeking value-driven bundles for small and large groups. Now moving on to Taco Bell. For Taco Bell, we rolled out numerous campaigns designed to broaden co-consumer choice and stimulate demand during the busiest quarter. National Taco Day campaign. We used a global key brand moment to engage fans and drive incremental visits through a dedicated offer, a Taco Supreme for 5.9 RON, and strong digital communication reinforcing brand love.
The Little Crunchwrap campaign brought a strong value offer built around one of our iconic products to drive traffic and transactions. The campaign helped bring in new users through an affordable price point, while also encouraging repeated visits among regular users. The Grilled Cheesy Burrito campaign, cheese again, focused on driving trial and boosting sales by highlighting a highly indulgent product with a strong cheesy experience. We supported it with integrated communication across channels to increase frequency and encourage customers to choose more satisfying meals. The campaigns delivered same-store sales and transactions above expectation, making Taco Bell strive in a difficult context for a QSR player.
As youngsters are Taco Bell's main target, in Q4, we continue building our presence in the gaming space, integrating the brand into competitions, streams, and community content to strengthen relevance among Gen Z and gaming audiences. Now moving from marketing to delivery. In the Q4 of 2025, delivery continued to play a meaningful role in our commercial mix, emphasizing a structural shift in consumer behavior, particularly during the winter months, when convenience becomes an even stronger driver of choice. Delivery contributed 19% of total group sales, up one percentage point versus the same period last year, fully aligned with the month-year trend toward a convenience-led consumption. In absolute terms, delivery sales grew by 7% year-over-year, reaching 78.7 million RON.
This performance reaffirms delivery as a resilient and reliable channel, even in a more cautious consumer environment. Thank you. Now back to Zuzanna.
Thank you very much, Monica. This concludes the presentation of our preliminary results for 2025, and we'll now start the Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please type it in the chat box. We will read it out loud, and then we will address it. Since I see we already have a lot of questions, we're going to jump in right to the Q&A. Just as a reminder, once we run out of the questions, we are going to conclude this call, therefore, please keep them coming. The first question is: Thank you for the presentation, hoping that Q4 is just the beginning. What do you see in trends for raw materials price in the first two months of 2026? What are your expectations for 2026? I will invite Valentin to address this question.
The cost pressures are expected to persist in the Q1 of 2026. Basically, this will be the reflection of a broader commodity environment. That said, we are in the position that we have successfully completed some negotiations with key suppliers. This particularly in the poultry category, which will result in a slightly better cost in Q1, if we're comparing even with the Q4 2025. In addition to this, we expect lower input cost for the Q1 2026 season versus the previous quarter for main categories such as shortening, potatoes and flour. All these are rather supported by recent negotiations or ongoing cost optimizations measure that were implemented to 2025.
If we are looking ahead to 2026, the volatility in the raw material market will remain from our point of view, but we believe that the actions already implemented, they positions us to be in a strong position to mitigate the inflationary pressures and the securitization of our willingness to protect the margins.
Thank you, Valentin. The next question is about Hard Rock Cafe. Can you please discuss the strategy approach for Hard Rock, considering it is a rather different type of franchise compared to the other franchising franchises? Meaning not fast food, but rather, if I am not mistaken, experimental casual dinner.
As we have announced to the market, we've developed five Hard Rock Cafe units in the following cities: Timișoara, Brașov, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, and Chișinău. Hard Rock operates in a market niche where casual dining blends with a unique experience and entertainment. The brand will support us in the diversifying our portfolio and strengthening our position as the market leader in the food service segment, being a brand that usually is high revenue with high profitability.
Thank you, Călin. The next question: What was the main driver behind the return to positive growth in Q4, particularly given the contrasting dynamics in the broader economy and consumption trends?
Here, I will take it. The return to positive growth in Q4 was primarily execution-driven rather than macro-driven. The broader consumption environment remained relatively soft, especially for Romania, so the improvement did not came from a sudden acceleration in demand. What made the difference was first, the stabilization of the traffic, supported by our volume-focused pricing strategy. We were disciplined in protecting volumes, as we also said in our last call, and we have applied this rather than pushing for pricing, and I'm linking it to the... your next question. This help us to have a strong return to the same-store sales and entering with this KPI in the positive territory.
Second, we start to see tangible impact from the operational measures implemented throughout the year, which are related to our as usual very tight control measures, a more localized marketing calibration, and of course, the subject that we have discussed related to the network optimizations. Basically, all these sections help us to fuel the store level performance and put us in a position to capture the demand more effectively in the peak season, which is embedded in the Q4. Thirdly, the Q4 benefited from a more balanced promotional calendar with an improved execution across all the brands.
Here I'm referring to mainly KFC and Taco Bell, which remain highly relevant and very focused on the affordable dining segment. Overall, it was less about macro rebound, but more about internal stabilization, discipline execution, and the compounding effect of all the measures and the efforts that we have together, mobilizing against the 2025 headings.
The next question, I see it also repeated, further on, is: How much of the growth in Q4 was driven by positive transaction counts versus average ticket increases due to pricing action? Maybe, we'll wrap it up into one, because I see the second question was: Did you implement any price increases in Q4?
Yeah. It's linked to what we already said. It's not so much about pricing, but it is about the securitization of the customer in our restaurants, which proved to be again, a good strategy in Q4.
Thank you, Valentin. How many restaurants do you plan to open in 2026? A breakdown by brand would be appreciated.
Definitely this will be visible in once our budget for 2026 is published. In, as a flavor, we are targeting for 2026 a number of around 20 new units. A very focused strategy towards growth related to the network footprint. Out of these 220 restaurants, we see about eight KFC in Romania. We are targeting 2 to 3 KFC in Italy. It will be one KFC in Republic of Moldova. We see two Taco Bell in Romania. The, well, proud new Taco Bell with the penetration of the territory in Moldova, and around 4 to 5 Cioccolati Italiani, once the pipeline it's starting to materialize in openings for this new brand.
Maybe, of course, if we will succeed to receive all the authorization, probably we'll open end of the year, the first Hard Rock Cafe.
Thank you very much. That's ambitious 2026. The next question: Should we expect any further financial impact in 2026 related to the closure of Pizza Hut restaurants?
Here, according to the accounting principles, we have provisions already in the financial statements of 2025, the cost that we have anticipated related to the closure of Pizza Hut. Of course, like in normal life, probably it will be a slight difference in the anticipation, but this for sure will not materially impact the financial statements of 2026, in respect to the cost related to the closure. However, in terms of performance, we definitely we expect to see good outcomes from this network rearrangement. In terms of performance, we're optimistic to pay results in 2026.
Thank you, Valentin. The next question: Could you please share your key expectations and guidance for 2026, particularly regarding revenue growth, EBITDA margin trends, and any assumptions about consumer spending recovery in Romania? What is your base case outlook for store growth and discretionary dining spend in 2026? What do you expect any meaningful improvement in customer sentiment during this year? I'm just going to give you a bit of color on how we're going to proceed with the budget. In line with how we've done it in the past years, one month before the annual general meeting of shareholders, which is scheduled for 29th April, 2026, we will publish the annual report together with the, together with the budget for 2026.
If you will, if you see our financial calendar, the documentation will be public on 27th of March, 2026. Therefore, until then, we will not be commenting anything specific related to the guidance for 2026. However, I will invite Valentin Budeș, if he wants to comment in a bit more detail on trends or, and what we are seeing in the market that's behind the construction of the budget.
Sure. Very briefly, in 2026, our base case scenario assumes a gradual normalization rather than a sharp recovery in consumer spending. Regarding the consumer sentiment in Romania, we expect a gradual improvement during the year. Definitely not a rapid shift. The disposable income dynamics and the inflation trends remain key variables to monitor. As you can see, because we're already in February, and for sure, our positioning in the affordable dining segment give us a relative resilience in this respect. Even in a still cautious consumption environment, we are optimistic that we'll be able to navigate very well.
Overall, 2026, from our point of view, is expected to be a year of consolidation, and we are fighting for margin rebuilding with controlled growth and the continuation of the operational discipline that start to pay results in Q4.
Thank you. The next question: What drove the increase in other operating income in Q4, 2025?
In the other operating income, we have revenues related to recycled oil. We have the some franchise fee that we are collecting. We have the lease and the other liabilities, which are related to the written-offs of the closures. This is mainly IFRS 16 related accounting treatment. We have also the other miscellaneous income recorded in this category.
Thank you. The next question: What level of CapEx per Hard Rock Cafe unit should we assume? What is the experienced ramp-up profile in terms of revenues and EBITDA margin per unit, year one versus steady state? What average payback period or target IRR are you underwriting for these new locations?
... The CapEx for the Faro cup, for the Faro Cafe format, it's definitely related to the format of the stores that we will decide to put in each of the locations. It can navigate from a magnitude of EUR 1.32 million to even EUR 2.2 million per locations. If we're speaking for a modeling purpose, we can have in mind an average of EUR 1.5 million to 1.7 million per locations. The EBITDA margin profile for this type of business is slightly different from the one that you can see in our current structures.
As a consolidated level, we speak about margin starting with 14%, up to 22%, depending again, on the maturity and the format that we will have implemented. We have a payback period of around five years, so pretty close to the current structure. The IRR, it's in our business case, it is targeted to be higher than 25%.
Thank you, Valentin. How do you see restaurant operating profit margin evolving in 2026? I mean, we will probably not add anything on top of what we've already said. we consider we would like to kindly ask you to wait one month until we publish the budget for 2026. The last question: What is the total CapEx we expect to incur in 2026?
This is, again, subject to the clear details that will be published in the budget. You know, already knowing the magnitude of our average investment per restaurants, plus the usual needs for the refurbishment and maintenance CapEx, that it's pretty much in line with the track record of the past years. We can speak about a magnitude of higher than 100 million RON, but the exact calculation to be visible once the budget will be finalized and published.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for the answer. I see we have addressed all of your questions. We will conclude this teleconference. We thank you all for joining us today. Next time we'll hear each other will be on 22nd of May, after we publish the Q1 2026 results. Prior to that, as I mentioned before, on 29th of April, we're going to have the general meeting of the shareholders, to which, as always, we invite you to join us, either live or online. We thank you all for your attention. We wish you a great day ahead.