The Restaurant Group profits soar as Brits continue to eat out

2nd September 2010, 12:53pm

The Restaurant Group (TRG) saw its pre-tax profit rise 13% to £24.6 million in the six months to July, which the company has said are “record interim results despite a very challenging half year”.

TRG added that the resilience of its brands has encouraged the Board to be confident of yet "another good year of progress in 2010".

Andrew Page, the chief executive, credited his teams in the various branches of Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Garfunkel's.

He said: "These are good results, with double digit growth in earnings, dividends and free cashflow. They reflect TRG's strong market positions, focusing on our customers and standards, and providing a consistent quality of product and service. They also reflect the outstanding commitment of our people.

"We continue to open new restaurants, which are performing superbly, and this year we will open between 20 and 25. The second half has started well and we are determined to build further on this."

Non-executive chairman, Alan Jackson described the business model as being "in great shape".

Other points of interest in the statement include:

Frankie & Benny's traded well during the first half, growing revenues, profits and margins. TRG said this is a particularly "creditable result as trade was adversely affected during the period of the World Cup tournament". Between eight and 10 new Frankie & Benny's will be opening in 2010.

The second half of 2010 will see three or four new Chiquito restaurants which struggled to balance a solid performance with lower than expected profits.

Garfunkel's performed "superbly" and delivered significant increases in revenues, margins and profit. The brand continues with its expansion with sites already on the horizon for 2011.

Related Articles:

• 28 Aug 2009 - Resilient results for The Restaurant Group
• 08 May 2009 - Sales drop 3% at The Restaurant Group
• 06 Jan 2009 - Reasonable performance at Restaurant Group
• 22 Oct 2008 - Restaurant Group non-exec buys 200,000 shares
• 06 Mar 2008 - The Restaurant Group serve up 'impressive' performance
• 04 May 2007 - TRG TO TAKE OFF AT HEATHROW

Click here to submit a comment!

Have your say!

To comment on this article, simply enter your name and email and send us your views. Please note that your comment will appear publicly below this article once it has been processed. For enquiries please email info@eatoutmagazine.co.uk.