Fulham Shore reports turnover and Ebitda rise: Real Greek and Franco Manca operator Fulham Shore has reported turnover for the six months ended 25 September 2016 rose to £19.9m, compared with £13.9m the year before. The company reported headline profit for the period of £2.4m (2015: £1.7m). It achieved headline Ebitda of £3.7m, compared with £2.6m the previous year. Operating profit increased to £855,000 compared with £230,000 the previous year. Chairman David Page said: “We have increased turnover, profits and the number of restaurants we operate. We expect to end the current financial year in March 2017 with around 43 restaurants, dependent on how quickly our builders work in the spring. We are planning more Franco Manca and The Real Greek restaurants for 2017/2018. Since 25 September 2016, the group has opened three The Real Greek restaurants in Muswell Hill (London), Boxpark Croydon and Southampton and three Franco Manca restaurants in Westfield London, Westbourne Grove (London) and Southampton. This takes the number of restaurants operated today by the group to a total of 42, made up of 12 The Real Greek, 29 Franco Manca and one Bukowski Grill. The group is currently fitting out a further Franco Manca pizzeria in Nova Victoria (London), which is scheduled to open in February 2017. Contracts have recently been exchanged on three sites in very different locations in and around London – Putney (near Putney Bridge), Russell Square and Richmond, Surrey, all expected to open in the spring of 2017. Great sites continue to be offered to us as we continue to open in London and now around the UK. However, we are determined that our customers and shareholders should be the beneficiaries of our expansion, not property owners or agents. Therefore, we will continue to take space that is just about big enough for us so that we are not paying for space we don’t use and the rent roll is that much lower. This helps us to keep our menu prices below our competitors for the benefit of our customers. Franco Manca is now occupying some spare window space at Debenhams in Westfield London. This has proved successful and we are now looking at building more relationships with retailers and licensed premises owners who have surplus space facing the high street that could be utilised by the group. The Brexit vote has had some of our suppliers in Europe nervously watching the UK. However, we are working with them to make sure any adjustment of our input prices is kept to a minimum. We are helped that much of our fresh produce is sourced locally in sterling in the UK. A key concern for us is maintaining the consistency and quality of our food and service offer. To this end, over the past 18 months, we have developed dedicated central teams running each part of the business. Each restaurant brand has its own operational management and we have property, people, training, opening and financial systems in place. These support functions are essential when growing a restaurant business leaving the front-of-house teams free to concentrate on the food and the customers. As the number of restaurants we open per year grow, and the eventual number we can finally achieve in the UK also grows, we will continue to invest in our central functions to ensure we have adequate resources to deliver growth. All this puts us in a sound position for our future expansion of the group’s excellent restaurant businesses. We have slowly increased the number of openings per year we can manage. Our progress so far was nine for the year ended 27 March 2016 and 13 year to date for the year ending 26 March 2017. We expect to increase this number in London and across the country in the next financial year. Sites are available, our restaurants are busy and popular, our prices are good value and our staff are well motivated. We therefore look forward with confidence to the further expansion of our Franco Manca and The Real Greek businesses.”

 

Elegant Hotels appoints new chief financial officer: Elegant Hotels Group, the owner and operator of six upscale freehold hotels and a beachfront restaurant on the island of Barbados in which sector investor Luke Johnson has taken a 12.5% stake, has appointed Jeffrey Singleton as chief financial officer on an interim basis with immediate effect. Singleton joins having until recently been group financial controller and corporate finance director of Rocco Forte Hotels. Previous roles have included finance director of the De Vere Hotel Group, head of external reporting at Cable & Wireless Group, and project manager for the International Accounting Standards Board. A chartered accountant, Singleton started his career at KPMG in Australia before moving to Deloitte, for whom he worked in both Melbourne and London. He will replace Richard Jones, who is leaving the group and stepping down from the board with immediate effect. Elegant Hotels chairman Simon Sherwood said: “We are very pleased to be joined by someone of Jeffrey’s calibre, and we look forward to benefiting both from his knowledge of the luxury hotel sector as well as from his technical expertise in the areas of corporate finance, accounting and external reporting. I would also like to thank Richard Jones for the contribution that he has made to Elegant Hotels and we wish him well for the future.”