KFC, Pizza Hut's Middle East franchisee Americana reports sharp profit decline amid Gaza boycotts

Americana Restaurants, the Middle East's largest fast food operator, reported on Thursday a 48.2 percent decline in profits to $117.4 million in a nine-month period amid global boycotts of American and Israeli-linked brands.

The Kuwaiti firm is the region's franchisee for major US food outlets including KFC, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, Costa Coffee and Krispy Kreme.

"Topline growth continued to be impacted by lower like-for-like sales due to the evolving regional geopolitical situation and slowness in consumer demand observed in some markets, despite support from new store openings," the company said in a statement.

Alongside geopolitical factors affecting the region, the firm also cited incremental deprecation charges from new openings and the United Arab Emirates' introduction of corporation tax as reasons for the fall in profits.

In its report, Americana Foods said revenues had experienced a 15.3 percent drop to $1.61 billion.

Despite this, the company said there was a "noticeable recovery" in average daily transactions between July and September, as compared to the second quarter of 2024.

Elsewhere, American fast food giant Mcdonald's reported its lowest sales numbers in four years, with sales at outlets open at least a year falling by 1.5 percent between July and September. This follows a drop of 1 percent between April and June — the first consecutive periods of contraction since the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Guardian.

Western brands in many parts of the world have been facing boycotts and other protests during Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed over 43,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 100,000 since October 2023.

In April, McDonald's moved to buy back its stores in Israel after its franchise in the country gave thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers serving in the country's brutal onslaught.

The move galvanised previous calls for a boycott of the American company.

Pizza Hut has faced similar boycott pressure after the company's franchise in Israel shared images of soldiers with the company's products in January.

American coffee chain Starbucks was also hit by a boycott, reporting "record losses" in December 2023 after it sued the Starbucks Workers United union in October over a pro-Palestine social media post.