Frankie and Benny's owner TRG defies credit crunch fears

Frankie and Benny's owner the Restaurant Group (TRG) has maintained its early year momentum despite widespread predictions of falling consumer spending on eating out.

Turnover at the group, which has 336 restaurants and operates brands such as Chiquito, Garfunkel's and Blubeckers, increased 18% to £203m in the first six months of the year and pre-tax profit was 20% higher at £21.1m.

Andrew Page, TRG chief executive, said: "The TRG team has delivered another set of very satisfactory results. Our new openings are performing strongly and we expect to have added more than thirty restaurants by the end of 2008."

TRG opened 17 new sites in the 26 week period ending 29 June 2008. It said second half trading had started well with like-for-like sales up 3% on last year.

A consumer survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this week found more than a quarter of punters planned to reduce their spending on eating out and takeaways as the UK economy falters.

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By Chris Druce

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