Tue 4th Jun 2013 - Breaking News – Vapiano reports UK turnover and profit surge Vapiano UK reports £373,633 pre-tax profit after operating loss the year before: Vapiano, which is led in the UK by Phil Sermon and has two sites operational with a third in the pipeline, has reported pre-tax profit of £373,509 in the year to 31 December 2012 on turnover of £6,584,200. The company made an operating loss of £298,074 in 2011 before on turnover of £5,199,076. However, it reported a profit of £7,498,004 in 2011 after intercompany debt of a similar amount was waived. Vapiano opened its Great Portland Street site in June 2008 as a strong flagship location to gain awareness of the brand. A second site was opened at Bankside in February 2011. A total of £606,684 is owed to Vapiano Franchising International in respect of franchising fees. Vapiano’s third site, in Soho, is expected to open in December this year. Sermon has indicated Vapiano may expand to 40 sites in the UK. “The scope in the UK is huge for this company,” he told Propel recently. “In Germany we have 48 stores. Germany has got a population of 80 million so it’s bigger than UK but in Vienna, for example, we have four stores and we’ve just bought another four and the population there is 1.8m. London has a population of nine million - so I think there is potential for 40 stores in London over the next ten years. We would consider expanding outside of London if we found excellent locations in big cities like Manchester and Cardiff, but we do feel there is enough to keep us occupied in London at the moment.” Vapiano site specification involves high footfall locations in central London, with between 6,000-12,000 square foot of trading space. The target is to eventually open four to six sites a year in London, with the regions more likely to follow on after a larger footprint has been established. The Great Portland Street site offers 420 covers, which are turned up to six times a day, with the upper end of total meals served hitting 3,000 - average spend-per-head is circa £11. This site alone employs 100 staff and the guest mix is 66 per cent female and 85 per cent of customers are under 35. Vapiano, which serves fresh food prepared at stand-alone pasta, pizza and salad stations, currently has sites in 35 countries.