Guzman y Gomez (GYG) has reported record first-half earnings, posting $681.8 million in global network sales for the six months ending 31 December 2025 — an 18% jump year on year.
The Sydney-based company, which trades on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker GYG, said group segment underlying EBITDA rose 23% to $33 million, while net profit after tax climbed 45% to $10.6 million. The results were driven almost entirely by its home market, where the brand has become a genuine challenger to McDonald’s and other QSR giants.
“GYG achieved solid sales momentum and earnings growth during the half, driven by our guests’ love for clean, fresh, delicious, made-to-order food at incredible speed and our team’s consistent execution on core strategic and operational initiatives,” said Steven Marks, the company’s founder and co-CEO.
Drive-thrus are the engine
GYG’s growth story is increasingly a drive-thru story. The chain ended the period with 264 restaurants in its Australia segment (which includes Singapore and Japan), and is targeting roughly 85% of all new openings to be drive-thru format going forward.
Those units are performing: drive-thru restaurants averaged $6.9 million in annual unit volume during the half, with 22% restaurant-level margins on average — figures that would be the envy of most fast-casual operators in any market.
Franchise economics are equally compelling. The median Australian franchise restaurant grew sales 9.8% to $6 million in AUVs, with restaurant margins climbing to 21% from 20% a year earlier. The median franchisee return on investment was 48% for the period.
Comp sales growth in the Australia Segment reached 4.4% for the half, with momentum building quarter over quarter — 4% in Q1, 4.8% in Q2, and further improvement in Q3. The company said transaction growth outpaced comp sales growth as it prioritised value for guests.
GYG also has 108 restaurants in its Australian real estate pipeline, with commercial terms agreed, of which more than 85% are drive-thrus. The company reaffirmed its target of opening 32 new restaurants in Australia in FY26, including 23 drive-thrus.
The US remains a work in progress
The US segment now has eight restaurants, adding two new Chicago-area locations (Des Plaines and Bucktown) during the half. Network sales grew 67% to $8.2 million, but the segment posted an underlying EBITDA loss of $8.3 million, up from a $5 million loss a year ago.
Corporate restaurant margins in the US came in at negative 69.6%, a significant decline from negative 41% in the prior period, driven by new-restaurant-opening costs and temporarily elevated protein costs. G&A costs as a percentage of U.S. network sales, while still eye-popping at 48%, improved dramatically from 78% a year ago as the fixed overhead base begins to spread across more units.
The company acknowledged that its new strategic partnership with Uber Eats will result in GYG cutting ties with DoorDash in the US — a transition that could create short-term sales headwinds. GYG said US losses are expected to increase slightly in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal 2025, but maintained that the second half should show improvement over the first.
Comp sales growth for the four mature US restaurants came in at 2.9%, hampered in Q2 by what the company described as unseasonable weather conditions.
Despite investing heavily in growth, GYG is returning capital to its shareholders.
The board declared a fully franked interim dividend of 7.4 cents per share and confirmed the company has repurchased $27 million worth of shares under its $100 million on-market buyback program announced last October. The company ended the period with $236 million in cash and term deposits and no debt.
