Jamie’s Italian, Jamie Oliver’s mid-market restaurant chain, is to open ten new sites in 2011 in a move that is set to boost turnover to an estimated total of £70m (writes Paul Charity).
Industry experts forecast that the company is well-placed to deliver pre-tax profit in the region of £5m to £7m on an annualised basis by the end of 2011.
The opening programme this year means that the chain will have added 20 sites to its original seven in just two years by the end of 2011.
It opened ten venues in 2010 - located in Leeds, Cambridge, Reading, Cardiff, Covent Garden, Westfield, Liverpool, Glasgow and Birmingham. Sites are rumoured to be taking more than £3m each on an annualised basis, which means a total of 27 sites are likely to produce in excess of £70m of turnover.
Projections are based on the most recent results which show a total of seven sites - four of them, Brighton, Canary Wharf, Guidford and Cardiff open for a part year in the 2009-10 financial year - producing a total turnover of £19.4m and a pre-tax profit of £1.65m in the year to 3 January 2010.
A company statement at Companies House said: “(Ten restaurants opened in 2010) are trading above expectations.
“The directors are highly focused on ensuring that all new investments achieve excellent returns on investment. We adopt a rigorous approach to the capital investment appraisal of all new sites.
“This includes a detailed financial evaluation as well as demographic, competitor and market analysis.“
A further ten restaurants are forecast to open in 2011. “Looking forward, Jamie’s Italian is well placed to continue its profitable expansion - the company has a robust business model, distinct market positions and funding in place.”
First openings of 2011 are in Nottingham and Bristol. Accounts for the year ending 4 January 2009 indicate how quickly Jamie’s Italian is growing - it turned over £3.7m and made a pre-tax loss before tax of £924,341.
The company has estimated total losses of just over £2m to carry forward against future trading profits.
