Tasty to dispose of sites due to ‘difficult trading environment'

Tasty, which operates the Wildwood and Dim T brands, has announced it will be disposing of sites due to the "difficult trading environment faced by the restaurant sector".

A trading update for the 52 weeks to 31 December 2017, posted to the London Stock Exchange today, stated that "trading for the period has been in line with expectations". But, it also confirmed that the company had disposed of four under-performing sites and undertaken a sales and leaseback of one other during the period in a £2m transaction.

Two further sites are currently under offer and are expected to be disposed of in the coming months.

Tasty highlighted the "difficult trading environment faced by the restaurant sector" and said it expects a "further deterioration" in 2018.

At 11:26am following the announcement, Tasty's share price (LON: TAST) was -2.6% to 28.4p.

In September 2017, the 62-strong restaurant group recognised an impairment charge of £9.5m in its accounts for the first half of 2017. The firm said its sales and margins were under pressure and that it had scaled back the pace of its roll out in the face of a "weak trading environment".

At the time, non-executive chairman Keith Lassman said: "The sector as a whole has been suffering due to a slowdown in consumer spending since the beginning of 2017 and this is set to continue into 2018. This is not unique to the group or any particular area but appears to be a nationwide problem particularly evident in London and has impacted turnover and profit."

In today's trading update, Tasty also announced the resignation of finance director Timothy Cundy.

Tasty makes £9.5m write-down as tough conditions hit sales and margins >>

Tasty scales down openings for 2017 after loss in 2016 >>

Wildwood and Dim T owner makes £2.3m loss >>

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