Pho eyes expansion as turnover passes £30m mark

Vietnamese restaurant chain Pho aims to expand further, as its annual results revealed its turnover has now passed the £30m mark.

Accounts for the year to 25 February 2018 showed a 17.7% increase in turnover at the chain, which has 27 restaurants, to £30.5m, up from £25.9m in the same period a year before.

However, the company slipped into a £1m pre-tax loss in 2017/18, having made a pre-tax profit of £14,437 the year before. It attributed the decline in profit to additions to the business to help it carry out its roll-out plan and predicted that profitability would improve in the current financial year thanks to good trade within its core restaurants.

As of the end of the last financial year, the company had a £3.2m war chest to fund new sites, having borrowed a further £2.1m from RBS bank during the year for that purpose.

Pho opened four new restaurants during the year to 25 February 2018 and has since made a further opening in the new financial, year, all of which were outside of London.

"The directors plan further new openings in the coming years. These sites will be carefully chosen to ensure that they are suitable areas for the group to prosper, given both the existing demographic and potential competitors in the area," the company said.

"Retained profits and the RBS bank facility will support the planned growth over the next three years. Such a roll-out plan is not considered a risk to the business as sites will not be opened if it is thought they would cause any unnecessary strain on the current estate."

The business was founded by Juliette and Stephen Wall (pictured) in 2005 after the pair left their sports marketing jobs in 2003 and discovered their enthusiasm for Vietnamese pho during their travels around Asia.

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