Walkers on the march with IRC growth plan
PICCOLINO and Restaurant Bar & Grill operator Individual Restaurant Company has raised £4m to expand and revamp its existing sites.
Taken private last summer in a deal with an enterprise value of £24m by its founders and Iceland Food chairman Malcolm Walker, Manchester-based IRC has 32 restaurants nationwide.
Sales in its last financial year to December 31 2011 grew 7.4% to £55.1m.
The new owners of the company, W2D2 Limited, has raised the cash through a four-for-three open offer of new shares in IRC, which closed on Wednesday.
The growth programme has already begun with the opening this week of a new cicchetti bar and late lounge at IRC’s central London Piccolino restaurant on Heddon Street, near Regent Street.
Commenting on recent developments in the business, IRC chief executive
Steven Walker said: “Having grown IRC from four to 33 restaurants in just six years, we had to tear up our expansion plans when Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008, signalling the start of the recession.
“We were quick to react by putting our restaurant openings on hold.”
He said the company has stuck to its core principles of “having a happy well-looked-after team delivering great food and service in
spotless restaurants”, and unlike many competitors, had not discounted to woo trade.
“As a public company we were heavily criticised for not joining in this discounting trend, and saw our shares slide from £1.75 to just 10p, even though profits only fell from £5.3m at their peak in 2008 to £4.3m in 2010.
“Banks did not want to lend and we concluded that the only sensible strategy was to take the business private in order to return it to growth.”
Chairman Malcolm Walker, no relation of Steven, added: “Although my main focus is obviously going to be on Iceland Foods after our recent £1.5bn deal to buy the company, I am very much looking forward to helping Steven and his team drive IRC forward and bring the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill brands to many more new guests across the UK.”
