The Restaurant Group plc ("TRG" or "the Group") operates 406 restaurants and pub restaurants. Its principal trading brands are Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Garfunkel's. In addition it operates 42 Pub Restaurants as well as over 50 sites in its Concessions business which trades principally at major UK airports.
Continued strong performance in a difficult market:
- Results marked as adjusted are stated excluding non-trading items.
- Total revenue increased 7.5% to £252m (2011: £234m)
- Like-for-like sales increased by 3.25%
- Adjusted operating profit increased by 8% to £27.3m (2011: £25.2m)
- Adjusted profit before tax increased by 7% to £26.1m (2011: £24.4m)
- Adjusted EPS rose 10.3% to 9.6p (2011: 8.7p)
- Statutory profit before tax was £26.1m (2011: £17.2m)
- Statutory EPS was 9.6p (2011: 5.6p)
Excellent performance demonstrating the resilience of TRG's business in difficult markets and the continued strength of its brands
Operations are strongly cash generative; adjusted operating cash flow of £38.5m (2011: £38.7m)
Interim dividend increased by 12.5% to 4.5p per share (2011: 4.0p)
Continuing new site development
- Eight new sites opened in the first half year
- A further five new sites opened to date in the second half year
- 25-30 new sites targeted for 2012
Continued strong trading with year to date like-for-like sales for the 34 weeks to 26 August 2012 at 3.25%
Board is confident of another year of good progress in 2012
Andrew Page, Chief Executive of The Restaurant Group plc commented as follows:
"The Restaurant Group has delivered a record first half performance with a 7.5% increase in total sales and a 10.3% increase in earnings per share. Since the beginning of the year we have opened 13 new restaurants and we expect to open a total of 25-30 for the full year. Trading continues to be good with the year to date like-for-like sales 3.25% ahead of last year. We have a fantastic team at TRG which has worked very hard to deliver this performance and they will all be looking to build further on this during the second half."
