D&D London experiences 'best ever' Christmas trading

The restaurant group says like-for-like sales for the four weeks to 31 December rose 6% across its restaurants, with overall revenue up 11%. Christmas Day like-for-like sales were up 20%.

D&D says it had strong double-digit growth performances from its established City venues over the Christmas period, with revenues at South Place Hotel up 16% and a Paternoster Chop House up 14%. At Aster, in Victoria, sales grew by 19% in the period, with Launceston Place up 14% and German Gymnasium up 12%.

The biggest growth was at its Orrery restaurant, which experienced a 22% uplift in Christmas trading.

Six of the company’s restaurants achieved £1m+ net revenues, with Quaglino’s and 100 Wardour street, D&D’s highest grossing restaurants, each achieving net revenues in excess of £1.4m. The group’s new Manchester restaurant 20 Stories, which opened at the start of last year, has recorded revenues of over £1m in its first December.

“We were very pleased with our like for like growth in revenues compared with a strong December last year,” says D&D London chairman and CEO Des Gunewardena.

“It was great to see both our more recent openings as well as our longest established venues performing well. In the context of Brexit and uncertain financial markets it was rather a better than expected Christmas.”