Extended late-night trading fails to boost sales at Collins Foods’ KFC Australia

Late-night trading hours at hundreds of KFC restaurants in Australia may not have provided as much of a sales boost as some analysts expected.

Collins Foods, which operates nearly 300 of Australia’s roughly 800 KFC outlets, earlier this year announced it would extend the opening hours of its local restaurants to midnight in a bid to adapt to consumers’ changing eating habits.

In a trading update during the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, Collins Food revealed same-store sales at KFC Australia were up 3.4 per cent in the 17 weeks since May. That growth slowed to 3.1 per cent in the past four weeks.

Collins Foods, which also operates stores in Germany and the Netherlands, said KFC Australia continued to perform positively despite lapping an extremely strong Christmas in July promotion in the prior year.

Collins Foods chief executive Xavier Simonet said there was an exciting growth plan in place locally, including menu innovations, promotional windows, well-progressed rollout of late-night hours, and the national launch of its Kwench drinks range.

In addition, the group will also launch a breakfast trial in September in selected Gold Coast restaurants.

UBS analyst Tim Plumbe said Australian stores remained healthy, but were not improving with store hour changes.

“Given the changes to trading hours, some might have hoped to see an acceleration in recent like-for-like numbers in Australian operations,” he said.

It comes as breakfast menu items and late-night eating open up another growth opportunity in the intensely competitive fast-food market.

While fast-food stalwart McDonald’s has long operated at those timeslots, other players are rushing in.

Mexican-themed fast food chain Guzman Y Gomez has been particularly successful in grabbing breakfast diners thanks to its breakfast burrito.

Collins Food had previously said breakfast and late-night dining accounted for 27 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, of total sales in the overall fast-food market. This was up 7 per cent and 11 per cent since 2024.

Over the past four weeks, same-store sales in the Netherlands were up 3.1 per cent and down 0.1 per cent in Germany.

“Europe started the new fiscal year softer than expected, reflecting general consumer confidence across the continent, a prolonged heatwave and a demanding prior-year lap arising from the Squid Game promotion,” Mr Simonet said, adding these issues affected the whole KFC network, not just Collins Foods.

“Europe and specifically Germany remains an exciting and material strategic opportunity for shareholder value creation.”

Mr Plumbe said it was a pleasing result for Europe, which was one of UBS’ main concern when it downgraded Collins Foods in June.

Collins Foods last year announced it would dump its Taco Bell chains. Providing an update on Tuesday, Collins Foods said 20 of its Taco Bell outlets have been transferred to the joint venture established between Taco Bell International and Restaurant Brands Australia.

The remaining seven restaurants were closed in the 2026 financial year.