英国比萨饼连锁店拟扩张中国业务
PizzaExpress’s new Chinese private equity owner is eyeing a buyout of the chain’s Hong Kong-based franchise partner as the chain beloved of the British middle classes expands across Asia.
Beijing-based Hony Capital, which acquired the pizza group in a £900m deal with Cinven last year, intends to directly acquire 26 franchised PizzaExpress restaurants in China the company said on Monday, and plans to open up to 15 more every year.
总部位于北京的弘毅投资(Hony Capital)去年与Cinven达成一笔9亿英镑的交易，收购了PizzaExpress。这家私募股权集团周一宣布，拟直接收购中国境内26家PizzaExpress特许经营餐厅，并计划每年开张至多15家新餐厅。“The PizzaExpress board were very keen to grow our business in China before Hony Capital acquired us,” said Richard Hodgson, chief executive. “Our restaurants in China are typically twice as busy as those in the UK.”
“弘毅投资收购我们之前，PizzaExpress董事会就非常热衷于发展我们在中国的业务，”PizzaExpress行政总裁理查德•霍奇森(Richard Hodgson)表示，“我们在中国的餐厅一般要比在英国的餐厅繁忙两倍。”
The Hony deal showed the growing Chinese investor appetite for British consumer brands, and followed on from Bright Food’s purchase of Weetabix in a deal that valued the breakfast cereal at $1.2bn.
弘毅的这笔交易显示了中国投资者对英国消费品牌的“胃口”越来越大。此前光明食品(Bright Food)曾收购维他麦(Weetabix)，该交易对这款早餐麦片品牌的估值达到12亿美元。PizzaExpress opened its first wholly-owned restaurant in Beijing last year, and another in Shenzhen will follow shortly. “There are dozens of second-tier Chinese cities with populations similar to that of London,” Mr Hodgson said, adding that between 10 and 15 openings a year were being targeted.
PizzaExpress去年在北京开了其第一家独资餐厅，在深圳的另一家餐厅也很快将开张。“中国有几十个人口规模与伦敦相仿的二线城市，”霍奇森表示。他补充说，目前的目标是每年开张10至15家新餐厅。“It has taken us 15 years to get to 27 restaurants, and we’re not about to make any mistakes in China by rushing,” he added.
“我们花了15年发展到27家餐厅的规模，我们不会仓促行事、在中国犯下任何错误，”他补充说。This compares with a target of 20 openings a year in the UK, where PizzaExpress has 400 restaurants, and last month celebrated 50 years since its first outlet was opened in Soho.
相比之下，PizzaExpress计划在其拥有400家餐厅的英国每年开张20家新餐厅。上月，这家比萨连锁店庆祝了其首家餐厅在伦敦苏豪区(Soho)开张50周年。The China franchise was established 15 years ago by Justin Kennedy, a former investment banker at Citigroup in Hong Kong, who introduced a ‘Peking Duck’ pizza for Chinese diners.
按特许经营模式运作的在华业务是15年前由前花旗集团(Citigroup)投资银行家贾斯汀•肯尼迪(Justin Kennedy)在香港建立的。他为中国食客推出了“北京烤鸭”比萨饼。First-half results released on Monday showed the chain was earning a decent crust for its new Chinese owners, with a 15.8 per cent increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to £55m on total revenues that grew 9.4 per cent to £231m.
周一发布的上半年业绩显示，这家比萨连锁店为中国新东家带来了不错的盈利，未计利息、税项、折旧及摊销的盈利(EBITDA)增长15.8%，达到5500万英镑，总营收增长9.4%，达到2.31亿英镑。The group’s UK restaurants saw a 6.8 per cent increase in like-for-like sales in the 28 weeks to 11 January, compared with the same period a year ago. Mr Hodgson said sales had been boosted by “improved consumer sentiment, particularly in London” and the number of covers and average spend per head were both rising.
该集团在英国的餐厅在截至1月11日的28周里实现6.8%的同店销售同比增长。霍奇森表示，提振销售的主因是“消费者信心好转，特别是在伦敦”，顾客人数和人均消费双双上升。Combined with the impact of deflationary ingredients prices, this boosted the group’s ebitda margin by 1.3 percentage points to 23.8 per cent.
再加上食材价格下降的影响，该集团的EBITDA利润率得到1.3个百分点的提振，达到23.8%。International sales, including China and the Middle East, rose 45 per cent on a like-for-like basis, with restaurants opened in Delhi and Mumbai in the period.
包括中国和中东在内的海外销售在同店基础上增长45%，其间在德里和孟买开张了新餐厅。Sales to UK supermarkets — responsible for 31m pizza sales a year, compared with 29m sold through its UK restaurants — were “trading well ahead of last year” he added.
他补充称，面向英国超市的销售“生意远远超过上一年度”。PizzaExpress面向英国超市每年销售3100万张比萨饼，相比之下该集团的英国餐厅每年销售2900万张比萨饼。
