Restaurant Group profits climb

2nd Sep 2010 07:51

Restaurant Group (TRG), which operates the Chiquito and Frankie and Benny's chains mostly seen in out of town shopping centres and cinemas, posted a rise in profits and revenues in the 27 weeks to 4 July despite tough economic conditions. TRG saw adjusted pre-tax profits rise to £24.6m from £21.7m over a comparable period the previous year as revenues rose to £229m from £210m.Profits were up at the Frankie & Benny's chain, which consists of 189 restaurants, but were slightly down at Chiquito, which has 64 outlets. The pub restaurant business, with 42 units saw profits increase and Garfunkel's, the central London focused restaurant chain with 23 units, 'performed superbly.''To have achieved this in the face of such difficult conditions is a very creditable performance and reflects not only the resilience of our business model but also the tenacity and professionalism of our team at TRG,' said chairman Alan Jackson. The company's resilience is likely to be tested in the months ahead, judging by his comments.'We have experienced a continuation of global economic uncertainty and, closer to home, political change,' he said. 'The new coalition government has announced a programme of fiscal austerity with the objective of reducing the level of National Debt and budget deficit and so we anticipate that it is likely that we will face a further continuation of current economic conditions for some time to come.'Jackson said the second half of the year has started well with good growth in like-for-like sales and turnover.