The restaurant business of Gordon Ramsay, the high-profile chef, has returned to profit thanks to restructuring and international expansion.
The group, which now has 31 restaurants worldwide, opened new sites in Bordeaux, Hong Kong and Dubai in the year ended 31 August 2016.
Pre-tax profit rose to £740k compared to a loss of £2m in the previous year and £6m in 2014, with sales rising 3% to £52m.
Ramsay described the last financial year as “pivotal” for his restaurant business, which saw a 24% increase in revenue from its overseas operations to £3.6m.
It said that trading had been particularly strong at the Bread Street Kitchen in Singapore and Gordon Ramsay Steak in Las Vegas
EBITDA fell from £5.5m to £4.4m on an adjusted basis. The fall was blamed on the impact of rent reviews, investment in its restaurants and a quieter Christmas after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
“The old expansion structure and strategy did not adapt the format and the concepts enough,” said Stuart Gillies, who became chief executive in March last year. “So they took an amazing operation from London and planted it in another location which was too high-end for the market or was not adapted accordingly to that social group.
“We do not do that now. We have 16 restaurants internationally and all of the businesses are partnerships where we work with a local partner.”
The company said it had also developed what it calls “high-end casual dining” restaurants in London that Gillies believes could be replicated across the world in partnership with local restaurant operators. It is planning a new Bread Street Kitchen in Sanya, China
Last year, Gillies revealed plans to return to provincial cities including Birmingham and Manchester, more than a decade after closing Amaryllis in his home city of Glasgow. He told The Times that the group had not yet found suitable locations and was still interested in taking the Bread Street Kitchen concept outside London, but for the time being the focus was on overseas expansion.
