Malaysia’s Starbucks, Jollibean operator posts earnings slump due to pandemic

Malaysian restaurant and café chain operator Berjaya Food Berhad reported a pre-tax loss of 7.597 million ringgit ($1.82 million) for its financial year that ended June 30.

The company behind Starbucks, Kenny Rogers Roasters, and Jollibean in Malaysia said in a bourse filing on August 21 that its fourth quarter was adversely affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It posted a pre-tax loss of 28.543 million ringgit for the three months to June 30.

Malaysia’s first set of COVID-19 movement restrictions came into effect on March 18. The restrictions were eased from May 12 to June 9.

Berjaya said it experienced a “significant reduction” in sales and also recorded negative same-store-sales growth during the entire period.

“Even though the Group's sales was recovering at a fast pace when Malaysia entered into the Recovery Movement Control Order ("RMCO") phase which started on 10 June 2020, the Group still recorded a much lower sales in the current quarter under review,” said Berjaya Food Berhad.

It said it is “cautiously optimistic” that its operating results will be “satisfactory” in its new financial year that started July 1.

Malaysia’s GDP contracted 17.1% in the three months ending June 30, the lowest recorded since the fourth quarter of the 1998 during the Asian Financial Crisis.

On the demand side, all sectors recorded drops except for government final consumption expenditure. On the supply side, only agriculture saw growth.

April was the worst month when GDP contracted by 28.6%.

Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, forecasts overall growth for 2020 to be within the range of -3.5% to -5.5% before rebounding to positive 5.5% to 8% in 2021.

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