Guzman y Gomez reported a statutory net loss of $26.7 million for the year to 30 June and described the result as a record. Both statements are accurate, and the distance between them is the year the company had.
The loss is what closing the United States business cost. GYG put the total earnings hit from the exit at $67.3 million. Strip the American operations out and the continuing business made a statutory net profit of $40.6 million, up 31.6 per cent, on network sales of $1.38 billion, up 17.9 per cent. Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at $85 million, up 28.7 per cent.
Network sales are what customers spent across all 284 restaurants, including the 162 in Australia that franchisees own rather than the company. It is the number the company leads with, and it is not the company's revenue.
The Australian business is doing the work. GYG opened 32 restaurants here during the year and three in Singapore, taking the Australian count to 255. Restaurant margin across the network was 20.3 per cent, up 20 basis points. Delivery was 27 per cent of sales. Median franchisee return on investment was 47 per cent, a figure that comes from the company rather than from any independent survey of its franchisees.
Having spent the year writing off one offshore bet, the board is sending the money back rather than making another. GYG completed a $100 million buyback during FY26 and announced a second $100 million buyback alongside the result. It declared a final dividend of 40.6 cents, of which 14.4 cents is a special dividend, taking the full year to 48 cents fully franked. That is a payout of roughly 90 per cent of underlying earnings. The company finished with $171 million in cash and no debt.
Founder and co-chief executive Steven Marks said he was "incredibly proud of the growth we have delivered", and put the Australian result down to "continued consumer demand for clean, fresh, made-to-order food" and "operating leverage embedded in our business". Operating leverage means the same restaurant selling more without its costs rising as fast.
This is a competitive market and GYG has no chokepoint to charge rent on. Anyone can open a taqueria. What it has is a franchise model in which the operator carries the fit-out cost and the brand takes a share of the turnover, and a listed parent that has now put $200 million into buybacks in the space of a year.
The guidance for FY27 is 35 new Australian restaurants, comparable sales growth in the mid single digits, and underlying EBITDA of 6.7 to 6.9 per cent of network sales, up from 6.2 per cent. That margin has to come from price or from cost, and the company has not said which.
The number to watch at the half year is comparable sales, not store count. Opening 35 restaurants lifts network sales whether or not the existing ones are busier.
