TCR London, the restaurant operator with sites at retail and transport hubs, has revealed that the past few months have seen “tough trading”.
The company, which has 19 sites trading under the Café Giardino, Italian Kitchen, Azzuro and Auberge brands, said that this was in contrast to good trading at the beginning of the year.
Chief executive Mark Winter told MCA that overall 2017 had been “relatively positive” but said it was a “challenging environment”.
The competitive environment combined with the economic downturn, political situation, terrorist attacks and consumers’ spending less in retail, were contributory factors but he admitted it was hard “to put your finger on it”.
Over the last year the company had been focusing on refurbishments, rebrands and lease renewals at some sites.
It transferred a Café Giardino in Crawley’s County Mall shopping centre into its new Italian Kitchen concept, following the success of the first site in Brighton.
He said despite the terrorist attacks in London its sites in London Bridge and Waterloo were trading well.
TCR London acquired the former assets of Town Centre Restaurants for £3.7m in June 2012 following a pre-pack administration.
