Giraffe, the Tesco-owned restaurant group, has said it is well placed to “perform strongly and expand at speed” following its acquisition by the retailer.
Reporting its results for the year to 24 March 2013, in which it saw turnover climb 9.3% to £44.2m, the company said that with the “support of its new parent company its expansion is set to move forward apace”.
The group, which said that trading in the first six months of 2013 had been above expectations, has so far opened fourTesco Extra-based sites and is believed to have over 10 further openings lined up inside or near to Extra stores for next year.
Openings are being lined up in Inverness, Glasgow, Wisbech, Newcastle, Peterborough, Cirencester, Shrewsbury, Cheam, Yeading and in Martlesham near Ipswich.
Giraffe, which opened its first overseas franchise site at Dubai Airport at the start of this year, is to open a restaurant with its UAE franchise partner Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR) at the Yas Mall in the city.
The company is also set to make its first foray into an out-of-town site after securing a unit in the new £4m leisure terrace at the Kingston Centre in Milton Keynes.
Earlier this month, Russel Joffe, managing director and co-founder of Giraffe, said “Our first Tesco site, which opened in Watford this August, has been a huge success, performing above expectations at every level and we hope that these new openings will follow suit.”
Operating loss for the year to 24 March 2013 stood at £4.8m against a £600k profit in the previous 12 months, while administrative expenses climbed from £29.5m to £38.7m due to new site openings, an increase in its operations team and one-off costs relating to its c£48m acquisition by Tesco. Pre-tax losses for the year stood at c£5m against a £326k profit in the previous year.
Net cash generated from operations during the 12 months decreased from £5m to £4.2m, while total net capital expenditure stood at £2.4m (2012: £5.5m). As at the year end the company had net funds of £2.2m against a net edbt of £6.7m in 2012.
