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Restaurants in crisis as takeaways thrive
Nick Goodway7 Jan 2009
The dire state of London's restaurant trade was laid bare today as upmarket chain FishWorks called for trading in its shares to be suspended as it looked for new cash or a takeover.
As if to emphasise its troubles as Britain turns into a nation of stay-at-home consumers, two of the country's biggest takeway chains Domino's Pizza and bakers Greggs reported particularly strong sales over Christmas.
FishWorks was founded by former fishmonger Mitch Tonks in 1994 and runs 10 acclaimed but pricey restaurants in London and the South-West. Tomkins quit last year, 17 months after a financial bailout by Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson and Abacus recruitment firm founder Gary Ashworth.
Johnson and Ashworth each paid £750,000 for their 11% stakes in the chain in February 2007. At today's suspension price of 1.63p, those stakes are now worth only £200,000.
In November, FishWorks said it had lost £5.5 million in the year to end-July after £1.6 million losses the year before and warned that trading conditons were “extremely tough”. It closed its Notting Hill outlet and two other restaurants.
In complete contrast, Domino's opened another 52 takeaways in 2008, beating its own annual target of 50 new outlets and taking its total to 553.
Greggs new chief executive Ken McMeikan said the chain planned to take advantage of the turmoil on the High Street to open more stores in empty spaces. Greggs opened 67 shops and closed 26 in 2008 to take its total to 1409.
Domino's chief executive Chris Moore said he was confident the chain would deliver “profits ahead of current City expectations” while McMeikan said profits would “in line with expectations.”
Domino's said underlying sales in the 13 weeks to 28 December had risen by 8.6%, which meant that for the calendar year they were up by 10%. Including new shop openings actual sales for the year grew by 18% to £351 million.
Greggs saw underlying sales in the four weeks to 3 January rise by 5.3%.
The average spend in a Greggs bakery is about £2. A large Domino's Pepperoni Passion pizza costs £15, and should feed two. A meal of soup, swordfish, crême brulée with a glass of house white wine costs £31.60 for one at FishWorks.
Reader views (4)
Mitch Tonks was an amazing entrepreneur starting up Fishworks as a shop cum restaurant. I agree that it was a bit too posh and it would have been lovely as a relaxed British version of a Mediterranean seaport cafe. When they introduced fish and chips (at last)I was in there like a shot. Hope they can turn it around and re-think as it is a great business model if run with the right know-how.
- Patricia Michelson, london, 07/01/2009 17:18
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Rubbish service and poor marketing did for this lot.
- Peter Bench, London, 07/01/2009 14:05
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The bubble has finally burst for all these so called posh nosh resturants. All the so called middle class customers are selling up and shipping out. Mitch should turn it into a good old fashioned fish and chip shop.
- Triffidqueen, Desk in London, 07/01/2009 13:37
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He should have stuck to being a fishmonger !
- Kathy Doyle, London, 07/01/2009 10:25
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