News

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen enjoys healthy sales, revenue growth

Company attributes menu changes, marketing and leadership as prime reasons for robust earnings.

August 20, 2015

The second quarter delivered a healthy sales spike for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and the brand is attributing the growth bump to menu innovation and marketing efforts.

Same-store sales jumped by 7.0 percent in Q2 2015, comapred to a 4.5 percent increase same time a year ago, representing a 11.8 percent growth rate.

Total revenues increased approximately 13 percent to $79.5 million in 2015 from $70.1 million the prior year. The $9.4 million increase was primarily due to a $5.3 million increase in sales by company-operated restaurants and a $4.4 million increase in franchise royalties. Sales by company-operated restaurants and franchise royalties were driven by positive same store sales increases and net unit growth, stated a release.

"Popeyes robust second quarter results demonstrate our focused execution against the five pillars of our strategic roadmap," Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder said in a release. "The sustainability of our impressive performance is a reflection of the collaborative relationship with our franchisees, innovative product pipeline and emphasis on developing leadership capabilities. Looking forward, we believe there is a long runway for continued growth of Popeyes, both in the U.S. and around the globe."  

Popeyes is the world's second-largest quick service chicken concept based on number of units. As of July 12, 2015, Popeyes had 2,443 operating restaurants in the U.S., Guam, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands and 27 countries.

Earnings highlights include:

• Total domestic same-store sales increased 7.1 percent, compared to a 4.3-percent increase last year, for a two-year compounded growth rate of 11.7 percent. Popeyes' domestic same-store sales have outpaced the chicken-QSR segment for 28 consecutive quarters and overall QSR for 14 consecutive quarters, according to independent data. Popeyes has increased its domestic market share of the chicken-QSR category to 24.6 percent compared to 22.3 percent last year.
• International same-store sales increased 6.1 percent, compared to 5.8 percent last year, for a two-year compounded growth rate of 12.3 percent.
• The Popeyes system opened 53 restaurants — 29 domestic and 24 international restaurants.
• As of the end of the first quarter, the Popeyes operated and franchised 2,420 restaurants, compared to 2,248 at the end of the first quarter in 2014, representing net unit growth of 7.7 percent over the last 12 months.
• Total system-wide sales increased by 13.7 percent as a result of same-store sales performance and net unit growth of the system.