The Lenard’s franchise, Australia’s largest specialty chicken retailer, has released its end of financial year reports, revealing gross profit of its franchised stores has risen to 52.44 per cent. The average annual operating profit of a Lenard’s franchise rose 12.2 per cent while average sales have increased 2.19 per cent.

“Our three-phase growth strategy is well on its way to realising the goals we have set, from both a company and franchise perspective. We are beginning to see the results of focusing our energy into increasing operating profits as the first phase of this plan, with our next step to look to growing sales, followed by customer numbers,” said Lenard’s CEO, Bruce Myers.

Over the last 18 months, Lenard’s has been implementing a multi-faceted growth strategy aimed at capitalising on the increasing demand for premium quality fresh food. A formalised alliance with grocery and liquor wholesaler Metcash Limited to roll out its store-in-store concept through its IGA network has proven successful, with more than 35 already up-and-running and another 18 in the pipeline.

“We’ve injected even more funds and manpower into franchise recruitment growing our team from one person to four, to ensure we’re able to meet the demand for potential new franchise owners,” Myers said.