The business daily Dagens Industri (DI) reported on Wednesday that the family-owned business, lead by patriarch Curt Bergfors, decided to take out 100 million kronor in profits last year.

READ ALSO: Paul Connolly on northern Swedish cuisine: “The burger joints are, with one glittering example (the excellent Max chain), depressingly bad.”

Established in 1968, Max today has more than a hundred restaurants across Sweden – about half the number of McDonald’s outlets. There are also Max joints in Dubai, Norway, and Denmark.

READ ALSO: Swedish crowdfunders turn ‘likes’ into equity to launch Stockholm’s premier burger joint Flippin’ Burgers

The chain also decided to profit off the government lowering the restaurant VAT levels last year from 25 to 12 percent, a move that DI reported was felt in the company’s profits.

“We lowered our prices by the entire VAT reduction and kept prices stable all year,” son and CEO Richard Bergfors told the paper, adding that he thought his family company would come close to the 2012 revenue increase of 11 percent also this year.

“I think we’ll hit about 10 percent this year and will keep on taking on new staff at that same rate. Around the new year we should have about 3,500 employees in Sweden, I reckon,” Bergfors told DI. Richard and his two brothers – deputy CEO Christoffer and 14-year-old Wilhelm – own about 5 percent of the company each.

Also on Wednesday, the TT news agency reported that Burger King in Sweden had reported a 30-percent increase in profits in its second-quarter report, compared to last year. The surge defeated a forecasted 0.1-percent decrease.

Competitors McDonald’s recently published a profit report that failed to satisfy market expectations.

The Local/at

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