Tragus Group, the privately-owned casual dining group led by Graham Turner, released full-year figures yesterday, with underlying profits (ebitda) marginally up 0.3% to £44.2m.
In what it described as a “creditable performance” in a challenging economic environment, like-for-like sales at its key brands – Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Strada – were down 2.3%. The like-for-like performance included 240 of Tragus’ 277 restaurants.
Sales in the year 24 May 2009 rose 5.7% to £261.9m.
The group, which is backed by Blackstone Group, said cash return on new site investments was 25.7% in a year when it opened 14 restaurants: five Café Rouge, four Strada and five Bella Italia. It planned to open a similar number in the current year.
Tragus said it had available funds of £47m although it intended to finance new openings from existing cashflows.
Turner, chief executive, told M&C that a flotation of the business was not the overwhelming reason for proactively releasing numbers. He said: “It’s not the absolute focus – we’re one of the main players in the industry and we want to be seen as such. It’s better to keep people informed.
“I don’t think now would be a great time to be chief executive of a quoted company, but I think it’s a logical way to go once the market returns and consumer confidence comes back.”
Ebitda rose 0.3% after central costs, which were almost 5% lower at £13.5m versus almost £14.2m in 2008. At a site level ebitda dipped from £58.2m to £57.7m.
During the period Tragus was able to shave £25m from its debts at a cost of £9.7m, leaving net debt at £270m – with no refinancing requirement until 2015.
Although the company declined to confirm the number, it is thought that the new laws around tipping had added about £2m to labour costs.
