\n<\/p>\n
Mexican-themed chain Guzman y Gomez plans to open at least 15 restaurants in the US despite doubling its losses on its \u201crelentless\u201d bid to expand into the competitive American market.<\/p>\n
Despite its struggles in the US, GYG recorded more than $1bn in sales across its network for the first time and more than doubled its net profit to $14.5m in the 12 months to July \u2013 its first year on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).<\/p>\n
Australian investors were rattled even though Guzman y Gomez lifted its overall revenue by 23% to $1.181bn, with GYG\u2019s share price plummeting by nearly 20% by close of trade on Friday after it published its yearly financial results.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s co-chief executive officers, Steven Marks and Hilton Brett, told investors their ambition was to \u201cbecome the best and biggest restaurant company in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/p>\n
Marks and Brett said they were committed to their North American expansion and were \u201crelentlessly focused on demonstrating proof of concept\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n
The duo said each American restaurant would need to make at least US$3m a year in order to be sustainable and \u201cwhile it will take time, we are seeing momentum\u201d.<\/p>\n
Guzman y Gomez lost A$13.2m on its US stores in the 12 months to 30 June, up from a $6.5m loss in the 2023-2024 financial year.<\/p>\n
There have been considerable doubts over whether the Sydney-headquartered company can crack the US market, which is notoriously difficult for Australian food retailers due to different tastes, supply chains and portion sizes.<\/p>\n
During the year, Guzman y Gomez added two urban strip restaurants to its network in Chicago, taking the total number of restaurants in the Illinois capital \u2013 where the company is beginning its foray into the American market \u2013 to seven.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s strategy focuses on building density in the Chicago market by \u201cexpanding inwards from the suburbs\u201d in a bid to \u201cto deepen penetration and strengthen brand presence\u201d.<\/p>\n
In February, Marks conceded to investors the company\u2019s US sales weren\u2019t \u201cgrowing as fast as we\u2019d like\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Guzman y Gomez plans to open two new US stores in the 2025-26 financial year and expects its losses in the American market to increase slightly during the 12-month period.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>Guzman y Gomez co-CEO and co-founder Steven Marks rings the ASX bell as co-CEO Hilton Brett (left) said they remained confident the chain could reach 1,000 stores.<\/span> Photograph: Supplied Morrow Sodali Pr\/PR IMAGE<\/p>\n Marks and Brett told investors they were optimistic given it took them 12 years for their Australian restaurants to average $40k per week in sales and another seven years to reach $100k.<\/p>\n The company fared much better at home over the past year, reporting network sales of nearly $1.1bn in Australia, partially driven by an increase in night-time and breakfast trading with the increased rollout of 24\/7 stores.<\/p>\n When it debuted on the ASX in June last year, the company won over investors by announcing plans to increase the number of its Australian stores from fewer than 200 to more than 1,000 \u2013 a figure chosen to rival McDonald\u2019s \u2013 and build its international network.<\/p>\n Marks and Brett said Guzman y Gomez was \u201con track\u201d to open 40 new restaurants in Australia a year within four years and remained confident they could reach 1,000 stores.<\/p>\n The company had 256 restaurants around the world as of 30 June after opening 39 new restaurants in the 12 months prior, including 32 in Australia, four in Singapore, one in Japan and the two new US stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mexican-themed chain Guzman y Gomez plans to open at least 15 restaurants in the US despite doubling its losses on its \u201crelentless\u201d bid to expand into the competitive American market. Despite its struggles in the US, GYG recorded more than $1bn in sales across its network for the first time and more than doubled its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[303,2593,10465,10464,10466,3106,9982,2535,10467],"class_list":{"0":"post-17341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-expansion","10":"tag-gomez","11":"tag-guzman","12":"tag-increased","13":"tag-investors","14":"tag-losses","15":"tag-menu","16":"tag-rattling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}