Our Story

For over half a century, we have been operating restaurants across the Middle East & North Africa (“MENA”) and Kazakhstan for iconic global brands including KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s, Krispy Kreme and TGI Friday’s. Through this time, we’ve maintained a robust focus on operations, coupled with a growth-oriented mindset that has paved the path to making Americana Restaurants the largest out-of-home dining (“OOHD”) and quick service restaurant (“QSR”) operator in the markets we operate.

This rich and extensive experience has also aided us in establishing a reputation as a trusted and preferred franchisee for global brands, with a diverse portfolio covering QSR, casual dining, indulgence and coffee.

Our operations span across 12 countries representing a $56 billion market (2021), expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 14% in USD terms from 2022 to 2026. We serve an addressable population of over 270 million people.

Given the favourable market conditions, and our strong foundation, Americana is well positioned to drive further growth and profitability; leveraging a powerful omnichannel and innovation-driven operating platform, scaling our footprint, increasing penetration and further expanding our offering across attractive, structurally driven markets.

Revenue (FY22)

$ 2.38 bn

Revenue (FY22)

Net Profit

$ 259 m

Net Profit

attributable to Parent (FY22)

Restaurants

2,183

Restaurants

Serving consistent quality and experience.

Countries

12

Countries

Present in major countries in MENA region and Kazakhstan.

Iconic Brands

12

Iconic Brands

Diversified and relevant portfolio.

Our Growth Strategy

Our ambitious strategy for growth is enabled by four levers.

Despite rapid growth, out-of-home dining in our markets is significantly underpenetrated from both a supply and demand perspective and presents compelling potential for further expansion. We aim to leverage the current low levels of penetration to expand our scale and footprint across existing markets, brands and new QSR categories.

We are committed to driving revenue growth for our restaurants by capitalizing on marketing, smart pricing and product and service innovation. We expect to maintain our digital investment programme to gain additional customer wallet share across our existing footprint.

Expanding profitability margins is a KPI across the business. Our focus on cost discipline is reflected in our zero-based budgeting approach and use of real-time integrated software systems to maintain and strengthen restaurant-level profitability.

As the trusted and preferred franchise partner for global restaurant brand owners, we are constantly engaged in discussions on new franchise opportunities. With best-in-class infrastructure, a pan-regional footprint, a strong balance sheet and the know-how to operate across occasions and formats, we continue to consider potential strategic additions to our omnichannel restaurant platform.

Investment Highlights

  • We are the leading restaurant operator in 12 countries in MENA and Kazakhstan by number of restaurants, with a larger restaurant footprint than the combined operations of the next four largest players in our markets, according to Euromonitor International research
  • We have a portfolio of 12 brands across consumer verticals and occasions, including QSR, Fast Casual, Casual Dining, Indulgence and Coffee
  • We are driven by a culture of operating excellence, and are deeply focused on product quality, speed of service and overall customer experience
  • Our 50-year track-record allows us to build strong franchisor relationships, maintaining a 100% brand retention record (other than for brands which we exited voluntarily and intentionally)
  • A single operational platform to manage multiple brands and markets helps create significant efficiencies, economies of scale and provides considerable negotiating strength. These synergies of scale offer a range of benefits, including:
    • Strategic supplier partnerships: scale and significance enable a diverse supply structure
    • Multi-brand warehousing: well-invested supply chain infrastructure capable of supporting future growth across the platform
    • Optimized and lean shared services: strong end-to-end value chain capabilities to support the business across all countries and brands
    • Last mile capabilities and driver pooling: digitized last mile capability enables optimized utilization to meet speed-of-service targets and deliver a differentiated customer experience
  • As part of our customer-centric operating culture and focus on product innovation, we regularly introduce specific local products, diverse menus and bundle innovations that appeal to local tastes as well as the preferences of our global brands
  • We are equally focused on bringing new experiences to consumers
    • We were the first franchisee to introduce stone oven artisanal pizzas to the international Pizza Hut brand in 2022
  • We are the leading OOHD and QSR operator across 12 countries representing a $56 billion market in 2021, expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 14% in USD terms from 2022 to 2026 1
  • We are the clear number one OOHD operator in each of our core markets of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt 2
  • Our markets benefit from powerful macro and socio-economic tailwinds such as young and fast-growing populations, urbanisation trends and multiple government reforms and economic agendas which are supporting strong GDP and consumer disposable income growth, resulting in further development of the sector and demand for out-of-home dining

1,2 Euromonitor International Report

  • Following a programme of portfolio rationalization, investment into digital and acceleration in restaurant rollout, we have achieved strong revenue momentum and are one of the few restaurant businesses globally to have achieved higher revenue in 2021 than in 2019, despite Covid-19, whilst continually growing our platform through new store openings
  • We enjoy strong unit economics with average paybacks on restaurants opened in 2020 and 2021 of only 1.7 years (based on annualised 1H 2022 performance), which alongside our lean, zero-based-budgeting driven approach to costs, has driven strong, resilient and expanding EBITDA margins
  • Through highly disciplined capital deployment and a strong negative working capital position, we have achieved leading rates of cash conversion across local and global peer groups, and have generated $738 million of cumulative Adjusted Free Cash Flow across the years 2019-2021, despite the impact of Covid-19
  • Driven by our commitment to providing each customer with a unique, seamless and satisfying experience, we have made significant investments in our front and back-end business intelligence and tech systems, creating one of the MENA region’s most advanced digitally driven platforms in the OOHD industry
  • The Group currently operates 17 proprietary, brand-specific customer facing applications, which we call SuperApps
    • Our SuperApps, partnering aggregators and call centres, are the core enablers of our home delivery offering
  • Our digital ecosystem allows us to gather direct insights on customers’ preferences, drive loyalty and maximise share of wallet with personalised offers, while promoting high-quality customer experience
  • In 2021, approximately 81% of our home delivery orders placed on either aggregator platforms or our SuperApps and call centres were fulfilled directly by Americana Restaurants, with an average delivery time of 26 minutes for approximately 45 million deliveries, reinforcing our position as one of the MENA region’s largest home delivery businesses
  • We have invested in advanced front-of-house technology, launching self-ordering kiosks, digital menus, car-hops and other innovations to create a seamless and efficient ordering experience for customers
  • Our strategy leverages the scale of the business to build a robust operation that ensures maximum stock availability while keeping working capital requirements optimised at minimum levels
  • We emphasize the importance of supply diversity, consistency and cost discipline, with a global supply network, a balanced approach to imported vs. local product sourcing, and low supplier concentration
  • We benefit from significant bargaining power with 86% of our Direct Spend in 2021 being centrally managed as well as long-term relationships with trusted suppliers which we continuously cultivate enabling reduced dependence on external parties
  • The depth and breadth of experience and talent in our senior management team was significantly reinforced following our acquisition by Adeptio in 2016
  • With support from our shareholders, our management team, led by CEO Amarpal Sandhu, has delivered significant improvements to our portfolio, growth and profitability profile. These include:
    • Rationalizing the brand portfolio to focus on the most attractive brands, reducing it from 20 brands in 2016 to 11 as of 30 June 2022
    • Rebalancing the restaurant portfolio to emphasize Power Brands: KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s and Krispy Kreme
    • A comprehensive shift towards a performance and KPI-driven values-led culture
  • We are backed by two of the region’s most established shareholders, the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Mr. Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar, who together owned 96.03% of the business prior to the IPO