Tue 20th Aug 2013 - Breaking News - Robin Rowland - 2012 a watershed year for YO! Sushi Robin Rowland – 2012 a watershed year for YO! Sushi: YO! Sushi chief executive Robin Rowland has shed more light on the company’s 2012 results describing the period as a watershed year with the company selling five sites – and reinvesting in two other key venues. The company saw flat Ebitda of £8m, down £800,000, on turnover up 9% to £62,628,343. Pre-tax profit for YO! Sushi UK was £2,193,366, down from £3,882,420 the year before with like-for-like sales flat. Rowland told Propel: “2012 was essentially a flat year in Ebitda terms - but a watershed year. This year is proving one our best years for many years with good like-for-like sales and profit growth.” YO! Sushi sold five sites last year – Islington and Brindley Place, Birmingham were sold to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for a premium and Cote offered a premium to buy its Market Place site near Oxford Circus. A site in Harrods closed after a sale triggered a redevelopment clause. A site in a Manchester closed as a result of a Selfridges store development and YO! Sushi moved to the Arndale centre. Action was also taken in Lakeside where YO! Sushi sold half of its trading area and reinvested in the remainder. Profit for the year was also affected by disruption at Heathrow Terminal 3, which is one of the company’s biggest profit drivers and was closed for seven weeks as a result of rebuilding working. It is now “trading fantastically”. Nine new restaurants were opened in Exeter, York, Windsor, Gatwick North, Waterloo Station, Guildford, Plymouth, Camden, and Aberdeen. A total of £7.3m was invested in 2012 compared to £5m the year before. A spokesman said: “Whilst recognising that the 2012 financial year was a tough year (for the company), it wasn’t that bad for the market. YO! still generated a lot of cash. Our pipeline, our covenant is strong and trading is good – the company is very cash generative with £7.9m produced. We’ve seen strong and improving like-for-likes in the last two quarters.” The company has three more sites due to open in the Middle East before Christmas – and a second site opening in Oslo after the success of the first site there franchised to SSP. Delays to the company’s second opening in Washington DC, planned for Chinatown, are due to the franchisee ‘taking his time’. New sites in Chester and Cheltenham both open this month and openings for Kingston, Bromley and Richmond are planned for November. YO! Sushi’s parent company reported a loss of £9.8m after accrued interest, depreciation and amortisation.