Billing from South America contracted 7.7% year-on-year.
Arcos Dorados (McDonald's), the main McDonald's operator in Latin America and the Caribbean, has cut its attributable net profit for the first quarter to US$ 28.5 million, which is 23.8% less than in the same period of the year former.
The chain's income rose 9.1% year-on-year, to US$ 1,081.4 million. The turnover of restaurants operated directly by the company rose 9%, to US$ 1,031 million.
Meanwhile, the turnover from the restaurants owned by Arcos Dorados as a franchise increased by 12.4% year-on-year, reaching US$49.9 million.
By markets, Arcos Dorados had a turnover of almost US$ 450 million in Brazil, 20% more than in the first quarter of the previous year. For its operations in North America, the company earned US$302.7 million, 16.8% more. On the contrary, billing from South America contracted 7.7% year-on-year.
For its part, operating costs have risen to US$ 1,013 million, 9.63% more than in the same period of the previous year, as reported this Wednesday by the McDonald's operator.
For its part, the adjusted gross operating result (Ebitda) was US$ 108.9 million, 8.4% higher than that achieved by the company in the first three months of 2023.
Meanwhile, the operating result has increased more than 1.9% in year-on-year terms, to exceed US$ 67.5 million at the end of March of this year.
The number of the operator's restaurants at the end of September 2023 was 2,381, which is 20 more establishments than it had at the end of last year.
The CEO of Arcos Dorados, Marcelo Rabach, has highlighted "the solidity" of these results, which demonstrate how far the company has come in the last decade. "Arcos Dorados' business model generated solid growth from 2024, despite a challenging economic environment in one of our main markets," he noted.
Looking ahead, Rabach has predicted that all the levers the company has pulled to generate the strong first quarter results will continue to drive results into the future. "That is why we are confident that we will be able to generate significant value for shareholders for many more years," he defended.
