The owner of an acclaimed restaurant in central London today revealed plans to start to spread out of the capital, less than six months after it floated.
BGR, which runs the Bank restaurant near Bush House, is planning to roll out the concept across Britain and has already identified sites in Edinburgh and Birmingham. A Manchester restaurant is also currently in the pipeline.
Bank opened in October 1996 and achieved both critical success and profitability quickly – in the six months to April 30 it made a profit of £602,000 on turnover of £2.9m.
BGR, which originated 13 years ago as a fishmonger and supply business, is also set to open two new London restaurants over the coming months.
One of them, the Fish! brasserie at Borough Market which should welcome its first diners in November, is set to be developed into a chain too with six other parts of London already earmarked for attention.
The AIM-listed group also owns specialist food supplier Cutty that supplies premium quality fish, poultry and meat to more than 250 restaurants.
Proforma figures for the six months to April 30 posted today show BGR made a pre-tax profit of £984,000 on £7.2m turnover against £922,000 on £6.6m during the equivalent period a year earlier.
Chief executive Tony Allan said: “Trading for the current year is encouraging and the group intends to accelerate its expansion plans over the coming months.”
EGi News 25/08/98
