Mon 17th Apr 2023 - Exclusive: master franchise rights for PF Chang’s in UK acquired by Pizza Hut franchisee Exclusive – master franchise rights for PF Chang’s in UK acquired by Pizza Hut franchisee: The master franchise rights for US brand PF Chang’s in the UK have been acquired by Zaf Holdings, a current Pizza Hut delivery franchisee, Propel has learned. At the same time Zaf Holdings has acquired the only site under the US brand in the UK, in Great Newport Street, Leicester Square. The company said it was “looking forward to this new venture and growing this amazing brand in the UK!” It said: “Watch this space for some more PF Chang’s coming your way soon.” The UK franchise rights for the brand, which made its debut here in August 2017, were owned by Diverse Dining, the company that holds the franchise for Shake Shack in the UK. In June 2018, Zaf Holdings, which was set up by Arif Jivraj, a private investor with wide-ranging expertise in franchised food retail, acquired the London-based KMP Taste, one of the UK’s largest Pizza Hut franchises with circa 30 stores in England. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Zaf Holdings reported turnover of £21,715,133 (2020: £21,246,078), with a pre-tax profit of £2,340,559 (2021: £1,957,568). The company said: “The first quarter of 2021 was challenging due to further covid-19 lockdowns. However, the group has continued to perform within management expectations and the group continues to maintain a healthy balance of working capital to meet its liabilities. The group has managed the challenge mostly driven by the accelerated growth of third-party aggregators like Deliveroo, Just Eat and UberEats. Pizza Hut's e-channel managed to claw back a lot of its customers through the online portal via Pizza Hut Digital Ventures customer ordering platform. Improvements in marketing, establishing a more frictionless customer journey, providing deals that offered a stronger value proposition and partnering with the third-party aggregators saw sales and profit rise significantly in the second half of the trading year. Furthermore, the business continued to position itself for sustained long-term growth by investing in the staffing structure and providing developmental training across the group.” Post year end, the group said it performed “broadly in line with the director's expectation and continues to grow despite increasing cost of sales”. Arizona-headquartered PF Chang’s was founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang and has grown to more than 300 restaurants globally with sites in circa 22 countries. The master franchise deal for PF Chang’s in the UK was engineered by Seeds Consulting. PF Chang's features in the Propel UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, which is an exhaustive guide to the companies offering a food and beverage franchise in the UK and is available exclusively to Premium subscribers. The database is updated every two months and the latest version will be released on Wednesday (19 April), featuring 200 companies and 180,000 words of content. ZAF Holdings features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the latest version of which was released on Friday (14 April). Its turnover of £21,715,133 is the 265th highest in the database. The Blue Book ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors’ earnings for the past five years. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email jo.charity@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.