Alternative Investment Market-listed bar, restaurant and nightclub operator Urbium, which owns the Tiger Tiger, Sugar Reef and Red Cube brands, has boosted half-year sales by 25% to £31.2m.
A trading statement for the six months to 29 June from the company, which demerged from Chorion last summer, also revealed that like-for-like sales grew during the second quarter at its London bars and at Tiger Tiger.
This marks a significant improvement on the first quarter, when the London branches were hit by the extended closure of the Underground Central line and by consumer disquiet over the Iraq war. Pre-tax profits are forecast to be "substantially ahead" of last year's interims of £2.5m.
The group runs 26 branches, including 16 in London and eight Tiger Tigers, which attract an older, more affluent market. As most of the group's London customers work and live in the capital, it does not depend on the less reliable tourist trade.
It is looking to open smaller versions of Tiger Tiger in cities such as Reading, Oxford, Brighton, Bournemouth, Southampton and Aberdeen, which would hold 1,250 customers against the current 2,000.
Urbium will open a Tiger Tiger in Dublin in early 2004, its only such venue outside the UK for the foreseeable future.
Urbium is also seeking new sites in London's West End and City and in affluent suburbs, along with major markets within and around the M25.