The Restaurant Group reports strong profits growth
THE Restaurant Group, which is behind brands including Chiquito, Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s, vowed to press ahead with its expansion plans as it reported strong growth in profits.
The group opened seven sites during the first half as part of plans to grow its number of outlets by between 30 and 35 for the year as a whole. The update came as the firm posted a 15 per cent increase in profits for the first six months of the year.
Chief executive Andrew Page said: “Our new restaurants are trading ahead of expectations, are on track to deliver high returns and the forward pipeline of new sites to 2015 and beyond is the best we’ve seen for many years.”
TRG, which operates more than 400 restaurants and
pubs across the UK, posted a pre-tax profit of £30 million for the first half, up from £26.1m a year ago, on total revenues 11.5 per cent higher at £280m.
Shareholders will receive an interim dividend of 5.25p, up 17 per cent.