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Cost-cutting helps Piccolino beat forecasts
9 Feb 2010The owner of the Piccolino and Bar & Grill restaurant chain today said it would beat profit forecasts after taking more than £2 million of costs out of the business during 2009.
Individual Restaurants also said that it had managed to see out the recession without introducing massive discounting as many of its rivals had done and so managed to preserve profit margins.
Chief executive Stephen Waklker said that both brands had the potential to rolled out nationally with the current 22 Piccolinos and 11 Bar & Grills predominantly in the South East. That meant they were badly hit by the snow in the first two weeks of January but he said trading has now returned to normal levels.
By the December year end net debt had been cut from £15.8 million to £12.4 million which is comfortably within the group's loan facility of £18.5 million.
