Agree. Although the company doesn't release this information, an...

Agree. Although the company doesn't release this information, an individual new store reaches "peak revenue" pretty quickly after opening and then generally flatlines and moves with seasonal trends and broader local economic growth factors. Some corporate tweaking can be done with promotions and specials but these are generally sugar hits. This flows into the top line revenue growth of the company. A new store does not normally continue to grow ad infinitum once opened unless there are external factors that influence this. This is a trend that is very common across most (all) quick service and fast food outlets.

Just because they have "1000 shops in Japan & under 500 in France" and whatever they have elsewhere it is not reasonable to assume that all of these stores will be all growing at well above system growth to support this business being seen as a solid growth business.

Therefore momentum in top line revenue growth for the company will come from repeating the cycle of new store openings and those stores moving to "peak revenue", rinse and repeat the cycle.

If they are closing stores and slowing the opening of new stores, where is the growth momentum coming from?

Also, don't forget that the company benefitted from PE arbitrage from the businesses that they acquired, but that was a short term boost to performance that always runs its course - which it has done.