Oakman Inns & Restaurants, the Hertfordshire-based operator headed by former Whitbread executive Peter Borg-Neal, has said that it expects turnover in its current financial year to exceed £9m.
The group, which secured its seventh site last October, saw turnover climb 22% to £7.6m for the year to 1 April 2012, with EBITDA OF £231K. Pre-tax losses narrowed from £632.3k to £464.9k.
The company, which has had informal discussions regarding new investment, said that the swing into profit gave it “great confidence that we are on the right track”.
Borg-Neal said: "Our view of 2011/12 is that it was a year when we started to mature as a Company. During the year we increased our operational capacity by taking on three senior personnel to help me run the business. We opened our fifth Oakman Inn, The Blue Boar, towards the end of the year and it has proven to be another huge success for us. Sales increased by 22% to £7.6 million and, despite the aforementioned increase in central costs, the lengthy Blue Boar closure and the attendant pre-opening losses, we achieved EBITDA of £231k."
“Sales continue to build steadily, with comparables growth of around 6% year to date, and we will exceed £9m turnover for 2012/13. We have also acquired two new sites. One is a leasehold in Beaconsfield where we are on-site with an anticipated opening date of April 2013. The other is a freehold in Abingdon which we acquired for £1.6m in September 2012. We are currently in negotiations with the local conservation officer and hope to be able to start work on a refurbishment by late spring. To fund these two projects we are likely to raise some further equity via an EIS scheme in the very near future".
Gross profit increased by £1m with gross profit margin increasing from 30.7% to 38.3% from £1.9m to £2.9m.
It said: “The balance sheet reflects a business with a growing tangible assets base, with fixed assets up from £4.6m to £5.5m to support a strong sales growth. Net operating cashflow significantly moved into a positive in the year, generating £264k of cash compared to an outflow the previous year of £96k. Total cash was an outflow after taking into account £1.3m spending on the refurbishment of the estate. The 2012 financial year has been another very dynamic year with sales increasing by 22% and the five developed sites operating very successfully despite a very difficult continuing economic climate.”
The group said that its second site, The Old Post Office, saw like-for-like sales increase by 27% on top of 16% sales growth in the previous year; The Red Lion, its third site, saw like-for-like sales increase by 75%; while The Blue Boar, its fifth site, underwent a £1.1m refurbishment and opened on time and on budget.
The Kings Arms, Berkhamsted, grew from a £24k-a-week revenue site to a £35k revenue site in its full year of operation.
