The financial year 2018-2019 was a good one for Hardcastle as a slew of its initiatives paid off. This was evident from the audited financial results announced by Westlife Development Limited (WDL), owner of Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd (HRPL), the Master Franchisee of McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India. The company reported a strong revenue growth of 23.5% for the year with an annual Same Store Sales Growth (SSSG) of 17%. The company’s annual revenue grew to ₹ 14,016 million and the net profit surged to ₹ 403.02 million. The cash profit for the year stood at ₹1,258 million, up by 41.5%. Annual operating EBITDA reported a strong growth of 50.4% to ₹1,273.9 million and operating EBITDA margins expanded by 163 bps to 9.1%. As a result company’s Profit After Tax tripled to ₹ 403.02 million. Commenting on the financial results, Amit Jatia, Vice-Chairman of Westlife Development Limited said, “FY19 was a year of big bold moves and transformation across our business. We have stayed committed to offering an exceptional guest experience, which we believe is our biggest differentiator in the industry today. A robust range of initiatives, coupled with strict financial discipline and maximization of operational efficiencies have helped us deliver a strong year. This gives us immense confidence that we are well on our way to achieving our vision 2022.” During the year under review, WDL undertook a slew of clutter-breaking initiatives to deliver unparalleled value, variety and convenience to its customers. The company relaunched its everyday value platform McSavers and introduced rice as a platform to give customers a compelling and wholesome meal option. With great menu innovation, it offered 9 new products as a part of its ‘What’s Your Spice Fest’ that saw great uptake from the customers. The company took a huge step ahead in its Good Food journey by launching Whole Wheat Buns across all its restaurants as an option for most of its burgers. Integrating ‘digital strategy’ across the business, HRPL expanded its Experience of the Future restaurant footprint. It also leveraged technology to drive value and convenience and launched McDonald’s app to give daily personalised offers to its customers, to be redeemed at the restaurants. The company continued to invest in growing its brand extensions – McCafé, McDelivery and McBreakfast. It added 41 new McCafé’s, taking the total count to 190. McCafé which has now built its own base of loyal customers has enabled the company to broaden its addressable market and grow baseline sales. McDelivery has helped the company tap into the aggressively growing delivery market. During the year under review, the company added 51 delivery hubs, taking the total count to 216. It also expanded its delivery coverage through third party aggregator partnerships, increasing accessibility and convenience. HRPL has been consistently increasing its footprint by entering new markets while adding more restaurants in cities it is already present in. During the year, the company opened 25 new restaurants, and entered four new cities - Thiruvananthapuram, Puducherry, Tirupati and Kakinada, taking the total restaurant count to 296 restaurants across 41 cities.