Piccolino owner dines out on profits

INDIVIDUAL Restaurant Company, the operator of the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill brands, said it had performed robustly last year as it turned a profit amid challenging conditions.

The Manchester company, said profits for 2009 fell to £1.3m from £1.8m the year before as revenues nudged ahead 1.3% to £53.3m.

In Manchester and Leeds TV chef Jamie Oliver is opening up, San Carlo – the successful Italian brand, and Gaucho Grill has also opened in Leeds.

IRC said it would look to begin opening new restaurants when trading conditions have improved.

Finance director Vernon Lord said the number of lunch-time and early-week diners had declined in the early part of last year, prompting it to trim staff hours across its 33 sites, a move which saved £1.2m.

Margins were protected as the group opted not to lauch mass promotions to drive footfall.

EBITDA, earnings for interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was £5m against £5.3m in 2008, a figure Mr Lord said was a “really good performance.”

“If we consider that 2008 was a boom year and 2009 was a harsh recession, to be flat at EBITDA level is a really good performance.”

He said the group was not yet seeing any impact of the Icelandic volcano eruption which has grounded flights across Europe and is set to hit food imports.

Since the turn of the year, he said there had been a marked upturn in sales in restaurants in the South East, but a more mixed performance in other regions.

“We expect 2010 to be another challenging year – if we were a southern business we would be flying, but it’s patchy performance elsewhere – some sites are trading up double digits, some are down double digits.”

He said uncertainty over VAT, high petrol prices, the World Cup and increased competition in key northern cities were the driving factors in the group focusing on its “organic estate”, rather than opening new sites.

The company posted a bottom-line loss of £800,000 against a £500,000 profit after non-trading itesm amounting to £2.2m were included. The bulk of this came in a £1.2m provision for onerous leases, relating to the conversion of a London restuarant into a training centre and an empty site in Birmingham.

The group also cut debt last year from £15.8m to £12.4m, and refinanced with a £2.6m equity fund-raising.