Double whammy to knock IRC’s profits
INDIVIDUAL Restaurant Company, the group behind the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill chains, said today its first half profits would suffer a £600,000 hit as a result of the bad weather at the start of the trading period and the World Cup at the end.
The AIM-listed Manchester company which has 33 restaurants, 22 under the Piccolino Italian concept and 11 Restaurant Bar & Grill sites revealed the double whammy in a trading update for the 26 weeks to July 4, ahead of its half year results in September.
The company said: “As indicated previously, the impact of the extreme weather conditions in the first two weeks of this year and the Football World Cup at the end of the period, have had an adverse effect on trading in the first half.
“Whilst the group’s earnings remain heavily weighted towards the second half, it is anticipated that the combination of these exceptional factors will negatively impact the group’s performance for the current year by approximately £0.6m, in total, at the profit before tax level.”
It was not all bad news though as IRC said it was seeing a general improvement in like-for-like sales since May. This trend was halted during the World Cup, but has since resumed.
The company added: “The board is encouraged that excluding the exceptional events experienced in the first half trading was in line with the board’s expectations and like for like sales are now in growth.
“The directors remain confident that the group remains well placed to take advantage of the opportunities which should arise if the current underlying trading trends are sustained.”
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