Premier Capital plc, the Maltese-owned Developmental Licencee for McDonald’s in six European markets, has posted a pre-tax profit of €28 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, up from €23 million in 2018.

Last year, the group registered a 16.2 per cent increase in turnover to realise revenue of €341 million. Thanks to its team of more than 8,800 people in 156 restaurants in Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Romania, Premier Capital served 131 million customers last year, 11 million more than in 2018, yet again setting a new guest count record for the group. 

All markets reported significant and even accelerated growth, with Greece registering the highest advancement on 2018 with 23.4 per cent, followed by Romania (18.7 per cent), Latvia (12.2 per cent), Lithuania (10.1 per cent), Estonia (8.2 per cent), and Malta (7.6 per cent).

Premier Capital opened 12 new restaurants last year: seven in Romania, one in Lithuania, one in Latvia and three in Greece, bringing the total of converted restaurants to 97.

The outlook for 2020 has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and capital expenditure has largely been put on hold, the company said. Some restaurants have been closed but most others continue to serve customers through take away, McDrive and McDelivery. At the beginning of the year, the group had originally projected to open 12 new restaurants in 2020. This for now has been revised to five.