Americana Restaurants highlighted the Middle East roll-out of Peet’s Coffee as a key 2023 milestone | Photo credit: Peet’s Coffee

Americana Restaurants has reported strong Middle East coffee franchise growth, led by the roll-out of Peet’s Coffee and the expansion of its licensed Krispy Kreme business. 
 

The Kuwait-based franchise group said ‘geopolitical tensions’ negatively impacted its fourth quarter earnings, particularly in Egypt and Jordan. However, a ‘resilient performance’ led to 1.5% total full-year sales growth to reach $2.4bn in the 12 months ending 31 December 2023.  

Americana Restaurants’ main business portfolio comprises the KFC, Hardee’s and Pizza Hut fast-food chains, with its KFC franchise contributing 61% of revenue and 52% of net outlet growth last year. 

The group opened 252 net new stores last year to reach 2,435 outlets across its 11 foodservice brands – 41% of which are KFC stores. 
 

Alongside scaling its fast-food chains, Americana Restaurants highlighted the roll-out of Peet’s Coffee in the Middle East as a key milestone as it seeks to ‘leverage growing demand for premium coffee’ in the region. 

The franchisee opened its first Peet’s Coffee store at The Dubai Mall shopping centre in the UAE in January 2023 before expanding to Saudi Arabia in the following August. Americana Restaurants opened 10 Peet’s Coffee stores across both markets last year, including flagship stores at Dubai Hills Mall and The Zone in Riyadh. 
 

The dual-listed franchise group continued to scale its Krispy Kreme franchise in 2023, with the donut and coffee chain the second largest contributor to Americana Restaurants’ 2023 outlet growth behind KFC. Americana Restaurants opened 84 net new Krispy Kreme stores last year, including its first in Kazakhstan, to reach 355 outlets across eight markets.  

Krispy Kreme contributed approximately 4% of Americana Restaurants’ revenues, generating $97.8m. 

However, despite scaling its Peet’s Coffee and Krispy Kreme franchises, Americana Restaurants closed several Costa Coffee stores across the Middle East last year. Americana Restaurants became Costa Coffee’s franchise partner in 2004 and now operates 68 outlets across Egypt, Kazakhstan and Jordan. 

Peet’s Coffee and Costa Coffee trade within Americana Restaurants’ ‘niche brands’ segment, which also includes Baskin Robbins, TGIF, Chicken Tikka and Wimpy outlets. The segment posted a 4.1% decline in sales in 2023 to $159.2m.