Oct 28 Reuters Sapphire Foods India, which operates Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants in the country, posted a surprise quarterly loss on Monday, as inflationweary consumers chose to dine out less.

Global fastfood chains, including McDonald39;s and Domino39;s, have been doubling down on cheaper pizzas and burgers in the pricesensitive Indian market, where consumers have been cutting back on discretionary spending due to rising prices of essentials, including food.

KFC has over the last few quarters launched more value offerings in the 99149 rupees 1.21.8 range, while Pizza Hut introduced the folded pizza, called Melts, from 169 rupees.

However, these were not enough, as Sapphire Foods, a franchisee of KFC and Pizza Hut owner Yum Brands, posted a loss of 30.4 million rupees 361,614.18 for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 9.5 million rupees, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

The company posted a profit of 153.4 million rupees last year.

Samestore sales declined 8 at KFC restaurants across India and fell 3 at Pizza Hut stores across the country.

Demand conditions continued to be muted, Sapphire Foods, which runs over 900 restaurants in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, said.

Overall revenue from operations, however, climbed 8 to 6.96 billion rupees as it added 23 more restaurants in the quarter but still fell short of market expectations of 7.02 billion rupees.

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