The Restaurant Group (TRG) – which operates Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito and Garfunkel's – has revealed it has achieved 3% growth in like-for-like sales despite it being a “tough market”.
Revealing its interim results for the 26 weeks ending June 29, the company also said it had seen revenue increase 18% on the same period last year – up to £203m.
The company's EBITDA rose by 16% to £35.3m and its pretax profits jumped by 20% to £21.1m.
But it warned that its pub restaurant group – which runs Blubeckers and Brunning & Price outlets – had been adversely affected by the downturn in the economy and food inflation.
Andrew Page, chief executive of TRG, said: "The TRG team has delivered another set of very satisfactory results with sales up 18% and profit up 20%.
“The market for consumer-facing businesses is tough and these results reflect the hard work of our people, the strength of our brands and our distinct market positions.
“Our new openings are performing strongly and we expect to have added more than thirty new restaurants by the end of 2008.”
Page said he expected TRG to continue its progress and added: “The second half has started well, with year to date like-for-like sales 3% ahead of last year, and our focus is firmly directed towards maintaining this progress.”
The company said it had opened 17 new sites so far this year and that it had targeted to open between 30 and 35 by the end of 2008.
TRG also revealed that EPS had increased by 23`% to 7.2p and that its interim dividend would be 1.4p – up 11%.
Non-executive chairman Alan Jackson said the company's net debt was £71.3m at the half year point and that it had a committed facility of £102m in place until 2012.
“The deterioration in the UK economy over the past twelve months has been well documented,” he added.
“There are a number of key economic factors which are currently adversely impacting consumer-facing businesses including input cost inflation, increased pressure on disposable incomes and less security of employment.
“Whilst the economic outlook remains challenging, I am confident that, absent a further significant deterioration in the UK economy, we will deliver another year of good progress.”
Commenting on TRG's pubs Jackson added: “Overall, the performance of our pub restaurants business was solid, although this part of our group has been more affected by the downturn in the economy and also through food cost inflation, as a result of a higher meat content in its menu offerings.
“We have been able to mitigate the impact of cost pressures through careful menu engineering (both content and price point) and cost management initiatives.”
