Restaurant operator Rosinter announced a 2.9 percent year-on-year fall in net operating profit in 2013 to 9.8 billion rubles ($283 million), the company said in a press release Thursday.
"The decline is worse than the 2.5 percent expected," said Investcafe analyst Roman Grinchenko. He attributed the sharper fall to an optimization program that cut the number of the company's restaurants, as well as the effect of a slowdown in consumer activity and a stalled economy.
Rosinter had boosted customer retention rates, however, while the average bill paid rose by a 2.8 percent last year, beating the 1.9 percent increase of 2012, he said.
At the end of 2013, Rosinter had 384 outlets — including 351 casual dining restaurants, chief among them the Il Patio and Planet Sushi brands, 32 Costa Coffee cafes and one McDonalds — down from 408 in December 2012, the company said.
