Prezzo, the owner of the Italian restaurant chain, has increased adjusted ebitda by 14% to £15.4m, up from £13.6m the year before.
The operator, which is led by chief executive Jonathan Kaye, said its underlying profit excluded the impact of £7.6m charge for non-trading items.
Revealing its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 28 December 2008 the company, which also runs the Mexican format Chimichanga, said that revenue had grown by 22% from £70.1m in 2007 to £85.9m.
Adjusted pre-tax profit increased by 8% to £11.5m, up from £10.6m the year before.
The £7.6m charge referred to losses on disposals, asset write-downs and impairment charges
In line with its interims the company said that it had slowed the rate of new openings in the second half of 2008 and only opened seven in the period, bringing the total for the year to 17 – down from 32 in 2007.
Four restaurants were closed during the 52 weeks, leaving it with 140 sites, added Prezzo.
However the company said that the business remained highly cash generative and that it had achieved a 32% increase in net cash generated from operations of £20.5m – up from £15.6m in 2007.
During the year, capital expenditure was £16.2m for the fit-out of new restaurants.
However Prezzo said that approximately £4m of this sum related to restaurants that opened immediately prior to the end of 2007 and that its capital creditor at the close of 2008 was £1.4m.
Also included in this £16.2m, was the purchase of one additional freehold property at a cost of £1.9m.
It added that net cash flow prior to financing flows was £2.7m – that could see the business comfortably support the opening of more than 25 units per year were it to see an upturn in trading.
Prezzo’s chairman Michael Carlton said: “While some of the cost pressures anticipated only 6 months ago have now been partially alleviated, we will still face incremental overhead costs in 2009 and 2010.
“Nevertheless, we believe that our market positioning and conservative financial position, debt-free and with growing cash resources, leave us well-placed amongst our peers and we will respond to the challenges of this changing climate in order to optimize the performance of our business. In the first quarter of the year, we have made a positive start against a cautious set of budget assumptions.”
