Clapham House Group is to raise £4.65m through a share placing to accelerate the rollout of its Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) and Bombay Bicycle Club (BBC) brands across the UK.
In a trading update the company said that it would apply to place approximately 1.55m shares of 10p each at 300p per share to raise the expansion funds.
It also said that it was the intention of four of its directors and management to subscribe to approximately 160,500 of new shares totalling £480,000, as part of a separate subscription.
The company said that it had traded well during the year, with particularly promising results from GBK and BBC.
It said that GBK has continued to provide good sales performance and return on capital invested.
The company has steadily accelerated its opening programme for GBK, and in the first half of the year opened four new restaurants. In the second half it opened a further six GBKs and converted three Tootsies into GBKs.
It reported that all the new openings and conversions had seen sales grow substantially.
The group said that due to the strong ongoing return on capital from the brand it has built an aggressive opening programme for next year.
It is currently building five new GBKs in Cambridge, Notting Hill, Walton-on-Thames, Lakeside and Greenwich. In addition it has exchanged contracts on a further seven properties for openings next year, including two sites in Manchester.
It opened its 22nd GBK in the UK in Basingstoke earlier this month, and its third in the Middle East in Dubai in February.
The group said that it expects next year’s opening programme to be loaded towards the first half.
The company said it was also stepping up its opening programme for BBC, with a delivery kitchen currently being built in Surbiton and contracts exchanged on one further location.
It said that the brand had traded well and the performance of the BBC delivery kitchens it opened in the year to 31 March 3006 had exceeded the company’s expectations.
It also announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 9.5% of the issued share capital of CHG2, which owns the business trading as BBC, for £750,000.
Under completion of the deal Sarah Williamson, who has been overseeing BBC since its acquisition, will become development director across Clapham House and will also take over managing and developing its The Real Greek brand.
The company said it plans to complete the reorganisation of its Tootsies estate next year, after carrying out several refurbishment and conversion during the current year.
It also reported that its The Real Greek restaurant business is nearing the end of its earn-out period and a new menu will be introduced this summer in preparation to the restart of its opening programme.
