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BENGALURU - Westlife Foodworld Ltd, which owns the franchise for McDonald's Corp in west and south India, reported a bigger-than-expected second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by rising demand.

The company reported a consolidated net profit after tax of 315.5 million Indian rupees ($3.9 million) for the September quarter, compared with a loss of 44.2 million rupees a year ago, when there were still some COVID-19 restrictions.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 246.6 million rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Sales surged 33% to 5.7 billion rupees, its highest ever quarterly sales, and the company achieved more than 67.5 million rupees in average annualized sales per store.

"Rising consumer demand in the QSR (quick service restaurant) industry enabled both on-premise as well as off-premise businesses to deliver solid numbers" said Amit Jatia, vice chairman of Westlife.

Westlife, which is on track to open 35-40 stores in 2023, saw a 52% rise in royalties to 261.9 million rupees.

"The price hike of 5% has been well accepted by customers and commodity inflation across the market has softened during the quarter," analysts at Dolat Capital said in a note.

Rival Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, which runs the Domino's Pizza chain in India, reported 10% rise in second-quarter profit on Tuesday.

Westlife Foodworld's shares have gained nearly 41% so far this year, while Jubilant's have lost nearly 15%. ($1 = 81.3650 Indian rupees)