On 27th March, Franchise Brands plc (AIM: FRAN), an international multi-brand franchise business, announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2024.
Read the announcement in full here
2024 saw resilient underlying demand for the Group’s essential reactive and planned services, resulting in record system sales in all key divisions, in challenging macroeconomic conditions in most key markets. Against this background, we focused on what we could control, maintaining a strong emphasis on cost management, supporting a creditable outturn for the year, with Adjusted EBITDA of £35.1m.
A particular highlight of trading in 2024 was the record system sales achieved in the Pirtek, Water & Waste Services and Filta International divisions. System sales were particularly strong in the US, helped by robust economic growth, while the rate of growth in the UK and most European markets was more moderate than in previous years.
The integration of the businesses acquired over the previous three years is progressing well. Our new CEO, Peter Molloy, is providing new focus and is connecting the Group through the launch of the One Franchise Brands initiative to accelerate the pace of integrating the Group to enhance sales, create an efficient overhead structure and drive operational gearing.
The cash-generative nature of our predominantly franchised business has allowed us to reduce Adjusted net debt from £74.7m to £65.1m and leverage from 2.5x to 1.9x times Adjusted EBITDA, which was in line with management’s expectations and comfortably within our banking covenants.
Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman, commented:
“The Group achieved record System sales in all key divisions and a creditable Adjusted EBITDA outturn for the year, despite ongoing challenging macroeconomic conditions in many of our key markets. This is a testament to the strength and resilience of the Franchise Brands business model and international diversification of our market-leading brands.
“Our essential services and diverse geographies provide a resilient base from which we are driving opportunities through our ‘One Franchise Brands’ strategic initiative, whilst growing our small share of large, fragmented, markets to position us well for recovery in our markets.
“As we accelerate the pace of integration of the Group’s businesses, we will drive operational gearing by maximising sales opportunities whilst leveraging an efficient structure, on an enhanced IT platform. We are confident that we have the strengthened leadership team in place to unlock the significant opportunities ahead.”
