Economy

Zimbabwe's Innscor targets Africa expansion after H1 earnings fall

Date: Mar 5, 2015

Zimbabwean fast food and retail group Innscor Africa reported a 7 percent decline in half-year earnings on Thursday due to shrinking consumer spending and said it would look to expand in Africa to spur future growth.

The southern African country is experiencing an economic slowdown, marked by company closures as businesses struggle with power cuts and lack of capital. Growth this year is expected to be lacklustre, hit by a lack of foreign investment and low commodity prices. Innscor runs the Chicken Inn and Pizza Inn chains, as well as the local operations of supermarket Spar.

The group also runs Chicken Inn and Pizza Inn chains franchises in some southern African countries. Innscor Chairman Addington Chinake said in a statement the Zimbabwean economy would continue to slow down this year and the key to Innscor's future growth was expanding in Africa.

Without giving details, the company said it plans to open 55new fast food outlets in the rest of Africa, which would become an important part of its future growth strategy.

"It is vitally important for the group to look to capitalize on its growing African platform and this will be an important part of its future growth strategy and desire to be a pan-African organisation," Chinake said.

Innscor said headline earnings for the six-months to December were 2.54 cents down from 2.73 cents the previous year. Headline EPS strips out certain one-off items and is the key profit gauge in Zimbabwe. The group's revenues fell to $513 million from $525 million previously while gross operating profit was flat at $46 million.

--reuters--

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