COMPANY PROFILE

Restaurant Brands is a corporate franchisee and specialises in managing multi-site branded food retail chains. Its restaurant support centre and corporate office is located in Penrose in Auckland. Restaurant Brands is listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange under NZX code RBD. As of June 2017, Restaurant Brands has 298 stores: 92 KFC New Zealand, 47 KFC Australia, 34 Pizza Hut New Zealand, 24 Starbucks,19 Carl's Jr., 37 Taco Bell Hawaii and 45 Pizza Hut Hawaii stores. It employs nearly 8,000 staff across New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii and serves 120,000 customers worldwide every day.

HISTORY

Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd was formed to acquire the New Zealand restaurant and takeaway operations of KFC and Pizza Hut in 1997. The decision to float the company was made by the owners of the time – PepsiCo Inc (now Yum! Restaurants International). The prospectus issued at the time stated that “as a listed company with its own dedicated management, board and financial resources, Restaurant Brands will be closer to the New Zealand market and have the potential to better capture growth opportunities, strengthen its competitive position and improve operating performance”. Since the float of the company, Restaurant Brands has certainly capitalised on this position. Previous to Restaurant Brands' formation, the KFC and Pizza Hut brands were largely supported from Australia with a very small head count in the Auckland head office. When Restaurant Brands was created in 1997, all support operations, including Payroll, Marketing, Finance, Logistics and Property Development, were moved to the central Support Centre in Penrose, Auckland.

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The company originally purchased 122 stores: 77 KFC stores, 43 Pizza Hut stores and two joint KFC and Pizza Hut stores. This number has grown significantly every year since. The company has recently started expanding into overseas markets as well as continuing growth in New Zealand.

Restaurant Brands secured the New Zealand franchise for Starbucks Coffee in 1998. This was something of a coup at the time, given that Australia did not have an operator of the brand at that stage. The café chain opened its first store in Parnell, Auckland and now has 24 stores.

The Pizza Hut brand experienced major change in 2000. Home delivery is a high convenience concept, which has grown rapidly and will continue to do so. To capture this opportunity, the brand completely changed Pizza Hut from a dine-in business to a home delivery and takeaway operation. This was achieved by acquiring and rebranding the Eagle Boys chain. The first Eagle Boys store was converted to a Pizza Hut in June 2000 and the last store was converted just 13 weeks later. All Pizza Hut stores are now home delivery carryout (delco) outlets. The Pizza Hut network, with nearly 100 stores now has a store within eight minutes drive time of 90% of Kiwi homes. In 2011 Pizza Hut commenced selling a number of its smaller regional stores to independent franchisees. This process has continued and the Pizza Hut brand now has over 50  stores operating under independent franchisees.

In 2011, Restaurant Brands acquired the New Zealand franchise for Carl's Jr., an exciting new burger brand, entering a new phase of international growth. The brand commenced rolling out stores in late 2012 and now has nearly 20 stores in operation.

In April 2016, Restaurant Brands purchased 42 KFC stores in New South Wales, Australia and has subsequently enlarged its investment by acquisition.

In March 2017, the company purchased 37 Taco Bell and 45 Pizza Hut stores in Hawaii and Guam, further increasing its offshore operations.

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INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS

Restaurant Brands leverages its operating capabilities on the brand strengths of its KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell and Starbucks franchisors: Yum! Restaurants International for KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, Starbucks Coffee International for Starbucks and CKE Restaurants, Inc for Carl's Jr.