Alamar seeks to maintain profitability, spur growth in coming period: CEO

He explained that Alamar will continue to expand its branch network in a way that achieves good investment returns and supports profitability indicators, adding that the company is currently studying multiple merger and acquisition options, in line with its growth strategy.

Despite the challenges endured at year-start, the company began witnessing signs of improvement began to appear on the horizon in Q2 2024, thanks to the implementation of a business plan specifically designed to deal with short-term challenges, with a focus on exploiting medium-term opportunities, said Sgattoni.

He pointed out that, despite the year-on-year (YoY) top-line decline in Q2 2024, there was a noticeable quarterly improvement in revenues for the same quarter. This came amid better external conditions in the main markets and the positive results of marketing campaigns.

Alamar seeks to meet current consumer trends by offering tailored promotions, while adopting modern marketing tools and technical development. This in turn helps attract new customers and boost sales in the coming period, according to the top executive.

He explained that the company is confident that the ongoing implementation of its strategy will enable it to achieve its set goals for 2024 and meet the ambitions aspired for 2025-2027, which it is still committed to.

However, the recent geopolitical tensions continued to take a toll on Alamar’s revenues, in addition to the slowdown in its expansion plan and the opening of new branches in the past period. The Saudi and UAE markets played a key role in the recovery process, thanks to the increased consumer spending and improved economic conditions.

The CEO also stated that the company's store count reached 692 branches by the end of Q2 2024, a YoY increase of 3.3%. This included 525 owned branches and 167 others under the sub-franchise system.

Meanwhile, Domino's Pizza's top line tumbled by 7.8% YoY to SAR 212.3 million in Q2 2024, while Dunkin's revenues fell YoY by 38.4% to SAR 10.7 million during the same period, due to the devaluation of the Egyptian currency.

Revenues from Saudi operations also decreased 10.5% YoY to SAR 148.9 million in Q2 2024. In contrast, revenues in the GCC countries and the Levant slightly rose 2.7% YoY to SAR 58 million. The company's revenues in North Africa dropped by 34.5% YoY in Q2 2024 to SAR 19.6 million, according to the top executive.

The positive operating cash flow, coupled with the decline in capital spending, helped achieve a free cash flow of SAR 9 million, said Sgattoni, stressing that the company remains committed to distributing quarterly dividends.

Alamar swung to a net loss of SAR 4.8 million in H1 2024, including SAR 11 million in non-recurring expenses, against earnings of SAR 31.1 million a year earlier. The second-quarter net profit amounted to SAR 12.9 million, data available to Argaam showed.