The company that owns the Burger King franchise in Ireland has reported a 26 per cent rise in pretax profits as fast food restaurants continue to expand across the State.
OKR Group Ltd, which trades as Burger King, has posted turnover of €36.2 million for the year ended May 30th, 2004, up from €34.8 million in the previous year, a rise of 4 per cent. The company is headquartered at Merrion Square, Dublin and its main shareholder was Arpal Investments Ltd.
Burger King itself began with one restaurant in Miami in 1954 and has grown to a franchise chain of more than 11,220 restaurants in 61 countries worldwide.
The company, which is owned internationally by an investment bank and two private equity groups, has been experiencing some difficulties recently. Its chairman and chief executive resigned recently even though the chain is meant to list on the stock exchange some time this summer.
Burger King has spent several years trying to challenge the biggest fast food chain, McDonald's, and other rivals such as Wendys. While McDonald's has sought to emphasise its new range of healthy options and salads, Burger King has continued to push its longstanding marketing slogan - "have it your way".
Texas Pacific, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs bought the chain in 2002. The international chain reported net profits of $49 million (€39.9 million) on turnover of $1.02 billion in the last six months of 2005, compared to $45 million on turnover of $969 million in the same period a year earlier. Before this the company had posted losses for several years.
The Irish company's pretax profits rose to €5.2 million from €4.1 million, a jump of almost 27 per cent. The accounts are the most recent filed by the company.
According to the accounts the paybill at the company stood at €9.8 million.
Costs at the company during the period were up slightly from €17.4 million to just over €18 million. This left the firm with a gross profit of €18.2 million, up from €17.3 million.
The company posted after-tax profits of €4.7 million, up from €3.7 million.
The company's balance sheet was in a healthy state in the period under review with tangible assets - usually cash, land, equipment and buildings - amounting to €44 million, up from €29.1 million.
Its financial assets were much smaller, but grew from €886,316 to €1.2 million. The amount of bank debt on the balance sheet was substantial, at €28.4 million, up from €15.8 million. The company had accmmulated profits at the end of the period of €18.3 million.
