Restaurant Group to beat profit expectations

8th Jan 2010 07:12

The Restaurant Group, the company behind the Frankie & Bennie's and Chiquito chains, expects full-year profits to be well ahead of the top end of the range of current market forecasts.The group said it has seen a further strengthening in trading since the previous update which covered the 46 weeks to 15 November. Trading for the final six weeks of the year to 27 December 2009 was good with strong like-for-like sales growth, the company added.Nineteen new restaurants were opened during the year and trading at these sites has been well ahead of expectations. The group is targeting 15 to 20 new openings during 2010. 'Looking forward, we are expecting a continuation of these challenging economic conditions and will be focusing our efforts on delivering further profitable progress in 2010,' said the group.