Mon 14th Apr 2014 - Breaking News - Coal Grill and Bar to add 18 sites after new investment Coal Grill and Bar to add 18 sites after new investment: Charterhouse Leisure, which trades as ‘Coal Grill & Bar’, is aiming to add six restaurants a year for three years after reporting an increase in Ebitda for the year to the end of February 2014. The company operates six high-volume casual dining restaurants in Basingstoke, Bristol, Bristol Waterside, Exeter, Meadowhall in Sheffield and Milton Keynes. Sales for the year were £8.4m. Restaurant ebitda increased 12.5% to £1.4m and company ebitda increased 13.2% to £727,000. Bank debt was reduced by over 50% from strong operating cash flow. Barclays has agreed additional facilities to support the roll out of the Coal Grill & Bar brand. Beringea and Octopus VCT have also invested an additional £800,000, which alongside the bank’s facilities will finance the opening of new restaurants at locations including Cheshire Oaks, Gloucester Quays and Swindon, all of which will open during 2014. The company is working with Savills London office to secure up to six restaurants per year on successful retail/leisure developments for the next three years. Commenting on the results, John Gater, founder and chief executive, said: “This is a very exciting time for the business. We have demonstrated our ability to deliver strong returns for a number of years now and I am delighted that our equity and debt partners have committed more funding to increase the number of openings to build a successful casual dining brand on retail/leisure destinations throughout the UK over the next three years”. Chairman James Horler added: “John and the team at Coal have continued to deliver a very strong trading performance and this has now given everybody confidence that it is the right time to step up the opening programme and accelerate the growth of the brand.”