BENGALURU, May 10 (Reuters) - Sapphire Foods India

, which operates the Pizza Hut and KFC ( YUM ) chains of

restaurants, posted its biggest profit fall since listing and

missed estimates on Friday, as inflation-weary customers

continued to cut back on dining out and ordering in.

The Yum Brands ( YUM ) franchisee's consolidated net profit

fell 98% to 23.9 million Indian rupees ($286,271.4) for the

quarter ended March 31, marking its fourth straight quarterly

profit fall.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 44.5 million

rupees, according to LSEG data.

Shares of the company, which went public in November

2021, fell as much as 3.3% after the results.

India's quick-service restaurants struggled throughout the

fiscal year to lure in customers, who cut back spending due to

sticky inflation. The country's food inflation, which accounts

for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, has

remained high so far this year.

Sapphire Foods's restaurants launched new items at lower

prices, as well as valued-added meals such as Pizza Hut's launch

of a cheesy pizza-sandwich meal called Melts priced at 259

rupees and above, but customers could not be swayed.

Expenses rose 15% as raw material prices climbed 9.4%.

Revenue climbed 12.7% to 6.2 billion rupees.

Rival McDonald's India franchisee Westlife also

posted a 96% slide in fourth-quarter profit on frail demand.

Devyani International, which also operates KFC ( YUM )

outlets in the country, and Domino's India-franchisee Jubilant

FoodWorks are yet to report results.

($1 = 83.4872 Indian rupees)