The fish restaurant chain Fishworks has revealed it made a loss of £5.5m – despite increasing its turnover and like-for-like sales.
Announcing its unaudited full year results prior to the year end of 31 July the company said its turnover had grown by 6% to 9.7m and its LFLs had increased by 5.1%.
But the company said that a impairment fee of £3.4m against under performing sites had contributed to its £5.5m loss.
Chairman Gary Ashworth said: “The year has seen the comprehensive overhaul of the Fishworks business. Significant cost savings have been achieved centrally, whilst operational controls within restaurants are now delivering improvements in margin whilst also dropping payroll costs.
“Our bank remains supportive and we have successfully negotiated a rescheduling of our borrowings over a longer period of time enabling us to reduce the monthly interest payments.
“Like many others we remain cautious regarding the UK financial outlook but although current market conditions are extremely tough the board believes they will also present good opportunities in the coming months, as commercial terms improve on potential acquisitions of additional units."
The company added it had disposed of three under-performing sites in the year an also sold its specialist fish supplier Channel Fisheries – and as a result Fishworks now operates out of 10 sites.
It also launched a new format concept, a redesigned restaurant style with an increased number of covers, in Swallow Street in London, which Fishworks said had been a “critical and commercial” success.
But in a statement the company added: “The current turmoil in the global economy makes forecasting very difficult at present. Uncertainty in the market and a lack of visibility means that the focus has been on ensuring consistent delivery of product, keeping retail prices competitive and closely controlling all costs and margins within the business.
“Against a backdrop of cost-price inflation considerable focus has been placed on margin control and supplier negotiations and the Directors anticipate that this will impact results positively for the coming year.”
