The Restaurant Group posts strong results for 2005
The Restaurant Group (TRG) has said farewell to the high-street in a bid to consolidate the lucrative residential and leisure dinning markets.
In the year ended 1 January 2006, the group sold Est Est Est, bought Blubeckers for £27m and sold its Caffé Uno business to Paramount Group for £33m.
Frankie & Benny's, the groups largest brand, passed the 100 mark during the year, and at the end TRG operated 237 branded restaurants, with another 25-30 set to launch in 2006.
TRG said both its restaurant and concession businesses had performed well, although its Garfunkel's brand had been hit hard by the effects of the London terror attacks in the summer before recovering.
Andrew Page, chief executive of TRG, said: "2005 was another good year. We have the capacity to fund significant future growth from new developments whilst continuing to grow profits from our existing estate."
Pre-tax profit, excluding non-trading items and the buy-back of Deep Pan Pizza Co, jumped 21% to £29.5m (2004: £24.4m) during the year.
With gains from the disposals included, pre-tax profit was £32.1m, which was a 52.9% increase on 2004's £21m.
Like-for-like sales were up 3% during 2005, and turnover was 12.5% higher year-on-year at £287.3m (2004: £255.4m).
TRG said last year's good trading had continued, with like-for-like sales up 4% in the nine weeks to 5 March 2006.
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By Chris Druce
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