The Restaurant Group sees double digit rise in pre-tax profits
Strong trading at The Restaurant Group (TRG) has led to another period of double digit growth, with pre-tax profit up 12.3% to £33.7m (2013: £30m) for the first half of its financial year.
The group, which operates more than 450 restaurants including Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Garfunkel's, saw total sales increase to £308m for the 26 weeks to 29 June 2014, up 10% on 2013 (£280m).
TRG opened 17 new restaurants in the first six months of the year and a further three since June. The company said they were all performing well and that it expects to take the number of new openings to between 38 and 43 by the end of the year.
Like-for-like sales also saw a comparatively modest increase of 2.5%
Commenting on the year-to-date figures, chief executive Andrew Page, who retires this months, said TRG had delivered another "record" set of results.
"These results reflect the hard work and efforts of all of the TRG team and I would like to record my thanks to them for delivering another outstanding performance," he added. "The Restaurant Group is in great shape, I am confident that it will continue to prosper and I wish Danny and the TRG team well as they take the business forwards."
Incoming chief executive Danny Breithaupt, said he was delighted to be taking on the leadership of TRG with the business in such great shape.
"TRG has a clear strategy, successful brands and a great team of people," he said. "This is a terrific platform for the further growth of the business, and I am looking forward to building on this and leading the Company through its next phase of development."
