Sales at the fast food chain Hesburger grew rapidly during 2021, compared to the previous year, the company announced on Tuesday.
The firm's sales in Finland were approximately 234 million euros last year, with combined domestic and international sales reaching 360 million euros. Year-on-year, domestic sales rose by eight percent, bringing them to pre-pandemic levels.
Having expanded beyond serving customers face-to-face at store tills and broadening its sales channels, the company noted that nearly half of last year's sales came from non-traditional orders, such as online.
At the end of last summer, current and former Hesburger employees reported poor treatment of staff, stressful working conditions and understaffing at the chain.
Responding to the allegations last summer, the company's founder and chair, Heikki Salmela, initially blamed middle management and the Covid crisis for the complaints.
However, the firm's statement issued on Tuesday said the organisation had tackled the issues, adding that management would continue to work on reforms to improve working conditions for its employees.
"In addition to the concrete reforms affecting restaurant work, we opened an anonymous feedback channel and a service phone line for staff members' employment matters. Using exceptionally broad recruitment campaigns, we have strived to alleviate continuing personnel shortages," Salmela said in the statement.
Hesburger said that a personnel survey would be carried out in the spring to measure the impact of actions it has implemented to improve employee well-being.
In addition to Finland, the Turku-based chain also operates in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Belarus. In April 2018 the company opened an outlet in Tehran, Iran but that effort was short lived, with the company announcing in October of that year it was shutting down operations in the Middle Eastern country at least temporarily, citing uncertainty brought about by international sanctions.