For Immediate Release Toronto Stock Exchange: BPF.UN
BOSTON PIZZA ROYALTIES INCOME FUND AND BOSTON PIZZA INTERNATIONAL INC. ANNOUNCE RECORD 2007 FULL YEAR AND FOURTH QUARTER SALES RESULTS AND JANUARY DISTRIBUTION TO UNITHOLDERS
34 new restaurant openings and 5.7% same store sales growth contribute to record system-wide gross sales of $755 million in 2007
VANCOUVER, BC, (February 11, 2008) - Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund (the "Fund") and Boston Pizza International Inc. ("BPI") each reported today financial results for the period of January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 (the "Year") and the fourth quarter results from October 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 (the "Period"). A copy of the management's discussion and analysis and financial statements are available at http://www.sedar.com/ and http://www.bpincomefund.com/. The Fund will host a conference call to discuss the results on February 11, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (1:00 p.m. Eastern Time). The call can be accessed by dialling 1-800-319-4610 or 604-638-5340. A replay will be available until February 18, 2008 by dialling 1-800-319-6413 or 604-638-9010 and entering the pin code: 5841 followed by # sign.
Same Store Sales Growth ("SSSG"), the key metric for revenue growth of the Fund, was 3.3% for the Period and 5.7% for the Year. Overall growth in franchise sales of restaurants in the royalty pool, was 20.4% for the Year. This was achieved through a combination of the addition of new restaurants to the royalty pool and SSSG. BPI opened 34 new Boston Pizza restaurants during the Year bringing the current total number of Boston Pizza restaurants open in Canada to 300, all of which are included in the royalty pool. Also during the Period, four restaurants were renovated to the latest design standards. A total of 19 Boston Pizza restaurants completed major renovations in 2007.
"Boston Pizza continued to perform very well in 2007," said Mike Cordoba, Chief Executive Officer. "We achieved a remarkable milestone by opening our 300th location during the fourth quarter. This further strengthens our position as Canada's number one casual dining brand, serving more customers in more locations than any other full service restaurant chain. We also increased same store sales by 5.7% in 2007 compared to 2006, which is a key factor in the profitability of our franchisees and also in our ability to increase monthly distributions to Unitholders. We increased monthly distributions three times in 2007 and, since the Fund's initial public offering in July 2002, monthly distributions have been increased a total of thirteen times for a total increase of 38.0%".
® Boston Pizza Royalties Limited Partnership. All Boston Pizza registered Canadian trade-marks and unregistered Canadian trade-marks containing the words "Boston", "BP", and/or "Pizza" are trade-marks owned by the Boston Pizza Royalties Limited Partnership and licensed by the Boston Pizza Royalties Limited Partnership to Boston Pizza International Inc.
© Boston Pizza International Inc. 2008