 "jubilant")
Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, which runs the Domino's Pizza chain of restaurants in India, reported a near-10% jump in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, as people dined out more following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Profit rose to 1.32 billion Indian rupees ($16.12 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, from 1.2 billion rupees a year earlier.
"Dine-in and takeaway channels combined witnessed strong year-on-year growth," said the restaurant operator.
Restaurants in India have seen a pickup in business this year, with people slowly returning to offices under hybrid work arrangements and venturing out more.
While Domino's in the United States is a delivery-first business, its dine-in business makes up a significant portion of its topline in India, its second-biggest market. The company, analysts said, has a more-than-70% share of India's pizza market.
Revenue rose to 13.01 billion rupees from 11.16 billion rupees last year, as Jubilant launched new menu items, including biryani and fried chicken.
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It also went on a store-opening spree, opening 76 stores in the July-September quarter, entering 22 new cities.
Jubilant, which opened the country's first Domino's restaurant in 1996 in New Delhi, aims to have 3,000 stores in the medium term, up from nearly 1,700 currently. The company also opened India's first Popeyes restaurant - a U.S.-based burger chain - earlier this year.
However, analysts have indicated the rapid expansion and higher prices of ingredients including cheese and vegetables weigh on its margins.
Jubilant said its core earnings margin came in at 24%, versus 25.8% last year.
Smaller rival Westlife Development will report its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, with analysts expecting the McDonald's franchisee to report a profit of 246.6 million rupees compared to a loss a year earlier.
($1 = 81.9050 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Janane Venkatraman)
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