Restaurant Bar and Grill owner remains confident despite widening losses

The Manchester-based owner of restaurant chains Restaurant Bar & Grill and Piccolino has said it is confident of the brands’ trading potential despite posting widened pre-tax losses of £1.8m. In its results for the year to 31 December 2010, the Individual Restaurant Company, which made a pre-tax loss of £872,000 last year, also reported reduced revenue of £51.3m, down from £53.3m in 2009.

The company which operates 22 Piccolino restaurants and 11 Restaurant Bar & Grills said both brands continued to trade “robustly”.

The business said the last two weeks of 2010 saw strong like for like sales growth and a number of sales initiatives in 2011 had helped continue this momentum.

Despite this, the business said it was mindful that 2011 will be “another challenging year”.

Chief executive Steven Walker said: “Taking into account some adverse one-off factors, trading performance in 2010 was pleasing. We experienced strong like for like sales towards the end of December 2010 and a number of sales initiatives have continued this momentum into the early part of 2011.

“However we remain cautious as to the future trading environment. Like for like sales growth, whilst positive, has slowed in March and in common with most of the industry, we are also experiencing cost pressures.

“Nevertheless I remain confident in the robustness and trading potential of both brands.”