Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund Announces First Quarter Sales Growth and April Distribution

About this update from Pizza Pizza Royalty Corp.

[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, April 21 /CNW/ - Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund (the "Fund")\n(TSX: PZA.UN) today announced a cash distribution of $0.076 per unit for the\nmonth of April, 2008. The distribution will be payable to unitholders of\nrecord at the close of business on April 30, 2008, and will be paid on May 15,\n2008.\n\n\nSales Growth\n\n\nPizza Pizza Limited posted same store sales growth (SSSG) of 3.7% for the\n13-week quarter ended March 30, 2008 when compared to the same 13-week quarter\nin 2007. SSSG is the key driver of yield growth for Fund unitholders and\nincludes results of Pizza 73 restaurants.\n\n\nSystem Sales for the 609 restaurants in the Royalty Pool increased 27%\nfor the quarter to $113.5 million compared to $89.5 million for the same\nquarter in 2007. Sales from the 559 Pizza Pizza restaurants were $94 million\nand sales from the 50 Pizza 73 restaurants were $19.5 million. Sales benefited\nfrom the addition of 37 net, new restaurants to the Royalty Pool on \nJanuary 1, 2008, plus the addition of 41 Pizza 73 restaurants in July 2007, as\nwell as the positive same store sales growth.\n\n\nSome retailers may report first quarter sales increases related to an\nextra day in February due to 2008 being a leap year. Pizza Pizza's sales\ngrowth does not include an extra day related to the leap year, since sales\ngrowth is measured on a comparable 13-week basis as opposed to a calendar\nquarter.\n\n\n"Pizza Pizza is pleased to report continued, positive sales growth. Our\nmarketing initiatives have proven effective in an Ontario market which\ncontinues to lose manufacturing jobs and experience declining tourism", said\nCurt Feltner, Chief Financial Officer. "Consumers in our industry are price\nsensitive. At Pizza Pizza, we have been absorbing commodity and gasoline price\nincreases over the recent months but may be forced to pass along some of these\ncosts to consumers in the second quarter."\n\n\nRestaurants\n\n\nDuring the quarter, the Pizza Pizza brand added 1 traditional and 1\nnon-traditional location and closed 3 non-traditional locations; the Pizza 73\nbrand added 4 non-traditional locations. The total number of locations for\nboth brands, including those not yet vended into the Royalty Pool, is 619 at\nMarch 30, 2008.\n\n\nAbout the Fund\n\n\nThe Fund is a limited purpose, open-ende...

More updates from Pizza Pizza Royalty Corp.