D&D London profits up 32%

D&D London, the high end restaurant chain, has posted yearly profits of £3.7m, up 32 per cent on the previous year, as Richoux and Individual Restaurant Company reported mixed results.​

D&D's results, released yesterday for the year to 31 March 2010, also reported a 3 per cent increase in turnover, taking it from £68.2 million to £70.4 million.

D&D, which owns 30 restaurants in Europe, the US and Japan, credited the increase in turnover to the market's emergence from the recession in the second half of the period.  The firm reported that trading was strongest in London, with customers moving away from corporate spend and spending their own money.

The highest performers in D&D's restaurant portfolio were Launceston Place and Bluebird, which saw their revenue increase by 25 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.  Almeida reported a 6 per cent increase in revenue, while Skylon at the Royal Festival Hall saw a 5 per cent increase in takings.

Internationally, the company saw its revenues at Guastavino’s in New York rise by 27 per cent, while Alcazar’s in Paris benefited from a reduction in VAT to take its revenues up by 19 per cent.

Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London said: "We were pleased with these results which reflect the beginnings of a recovery from a recession which in London was sharp, but thankfully shorter than we had feared.”

The company confirmed that the recovery had continued into the current financial year, with its underlying sales running 6 per cent ahead of last year.

But Gunewardena added: “The second half of 2010/11 is difficult to call.  Public expenditure cuts and tax increases will have an adverse impact on revenues and what dent that makes on our overall sales growth will depend on the extent to which the recovery in corporate spend is maintained to offset this.”

Richoux/IRC​

Richoux Group, the owner and operator of Richoux, Zippers and Frankie’s Easy Diner, posted profits of £90,000 for the 28 weeks to 11 July 2010, up from a loss of £210,00 in the same period last year.

The company, which operates seven restaurants, also saw turnover increase from £2.71 million to £2.69 million.

Philip Shotter, chairman of the Richoux Group, said: “Against trading conditions which remain challenging the core Richoux brand continues to perform steadily. The trading from the first Zippers and Frankie’s Easy diner are in line with expectations and additional openings are envisaged to further assess the viability of those concepts.”

Meanwhile, Individual Restaurants Company (IRC), operators of 33 Piccolino and Restaurant Bar and Grill outlets, posted lower results for the 6 months to 4 July.

Revenue was slightly down from £25.1 million to £24.6 million, which the group blamed on the severe weather and the World Cup, but the loss increased by £1.7 million from £0.8 million to £2.5 million.  IRC credited £1.3 million of the loss to "impairment of assets" of Restaurant Bar and Grill in Glasgow.