Westlife Development reported a good set of second-quarter earnings. Revenues for the quarter were up 84 percent at Rs 385.4 crore versus Rs 209.5 crore reported in the same quarter last fiscal. The year-on-year (YoY) EBITDA came in at Rs 44.44 crore versus minus Rs 1.29 crore, and EBITDA margins stood at 11.5 percent. The YoY net loss was down to Rs 4.41 crore versus Rs 32.54 crore.

Throwing further light on the numbers and outlook, Amit Jatia, VC, Westlife Development, said their same store sales growth was about 84 percent, and so to that extent, on YoY basis they have done well. In fact, it is 3-4 percent higher than two years ago. So, the numbers are almost back to pre-pandemic levels, even though in July and August, Maharashtra was completely shut down and dine-in was allowed only till 4 pm. But month-on-month recovery was good and September did well.

He said, “The convenience channel grew sequentially by about 7 percent and YoY by almost 77 percent. Today, about 60-65 percent continues to be from our convenience channels, and the balance is from in-store. So, overall it looks good for now.”

He further confirmed that they were not seeing any drop in the convenience channels, and that was 8-10 percent same store sales growth there.

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On paying out dividends, he said, with growth the capital is being put back quite intelligently into the business. “We think, that we are a growth company and our capital is better utilised in growing the restaurant base, including Experience of the Future (EOTF) and McCafe. And as long as we can give return on equity (RoE) in high double-digits, I think investors and shareholders will be happier with us utilising our money in the business,” he said, adding that dividend payouts were not on the cards as yet.

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"However, in the next two to three years we are pushing ourselves with aggressive growth to try to generate free cash flow so that we can become dividend-paying," he said.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)