Alsea's Europe sales rise 2.8% as Starbucks France leads
The Mexican franchise group's Starbucks, Domino's and Vips business in Spain and France posted €305m in third-quarter sales, with adjusted EBITDA at €44m.
Alsea's European division grew sales 2.8% in the third quarter to €305m, with Starbucks France posting the strongest same-store growth in the group's results reported in October.
Europe now accounts for 28.6% of sales at Alsea, the Mexican company that runs Starbucks, Domino's Pizza, Vips, Ginos and Foster's Hollywood franchises across Spain and France. Adjusted EBITDA for the region came to €44m for the quarter.
Starbucks France drives the quarter
Alsea's quarter reflected a clear acceleration in our business performance.
Starbucks same-store sales rose 6.1% across Alsea's European business and 6.4% in France specifically, where the company credits marketing campaigns and the Spanish launch of its Unicorn Frappuccino for recovering traffic. Domino's Pizza same-store sales rose 2.2%, helped by new "Horno 24/7" and late-night formats and a Deluxe pizza range using Manchego, gorgonzola and raclette.
Alsea's full-service brands in Spain, including Vips, Ginos and Foster's Hollywood, posted combined same-store growth of 2.3%, a run the company says has now lasted more than three years.
A different story to the US chains
Chief executive Christian Gurría described the quarter as showing "a clear acceleration in our business performance" and said Alsea enters its final quarter of the year "with favourable signals in key markets."
The results put Alsea's European franchises on the opposite trend from some of their American counterparts: days earlier, AMUSE reported that Wingstop cut its US sales outlook as its own same-store slump dragged into a second straight quarter.
Alsea has not broken out store counts for Spain and France in this release, and some outlets have reported conflicting net income figures for the group as a whole, tied to refinancing and currency effects outside the European business.
The Europe unit is the smaller of Alsea's two reporting regions behind Latin America, but it is the one management points to when it wants to show momentum, since French and Spanish same-store growth now runs ahead of the group average. Alsea reports again in February, when investors will see whether the Christmas trading period across Spain and France keeps pace with the autumn numbers.
