Exclusive – Individual Restaurants trading ‘strongly’, premium dining market being adversely affected by cost-of-living crisis: Individual Restaurants, which comprises 31 venues across its Restaurant Bar & Grill, Piccolino, Piccolo and Riva Blu brands, has said trading in its current financial year has been “strong” but the premium dining market is being adversely affected by cost-of-living pressures. It comes as the business saw turnover fall to £65,600,000 for the year ending 26 March 2023 compared with £67,100,000 the previous year. Adjusted Ebitda for the period was a loss of £7,642,000 (2022: loss of £7,338,000). Pre-tax losses increased to £12,474,000 from £11,488,000. During the period, the company acquired three restaurants located in Next stores that were branded as Piccolo by Piccolino and has given the business “the chance to target a slightly different demographic from the core Piccolo brand”. In April 2023, the company repaid its existing bank debt in its entirety. In his report accompanying the accounts, director Tarsem Dhaliwal stated: “We have also continued our significant investment in the existing estate. Our flagship Heddon Street Piccolino restaurant in Mayfair underwent a full refurbishment and refit in May 2022. We also invested heavily in Exchange Square Piccolino, Bramhall Piccolino, Opera Grill in Chester and Bank Bar & Grill in Birmingham. Both Leeds Restaurant Bar & Grill and Stockton Heath Piccolino underwent significant refurbishments during the summer 2023 and have been trading very strongly since. In August 2023, we took possession of a new site in Wilmslow, which has opened as Piccolino Grande. Cucina, our new centralised kitchen facility based in Trafford Park that prepares and supplies food to our restaurants, opened as planned in May 2022. This enables us to ensure product consistency across the business while simultaneously driving production efficiencies and we are already seeing the benefits at restaurant level. The financial year to March 2023 performed below expectations overall. We saw the premium dining market as a whole being adversely affected by continued cost-of-living pressures. Increasing interest rates and inflationary pressures, especially energy costs, also impacted our cost of doing business and while we have endeavoured to mitigate these as much as possible, price rises to our guests have been inevitable. This financial year to date has started very positively as our investment in the estate coupled with our continued drive to employ, train and develop the best people to deliver the best food and service to our guests has seen sales performing strongly. Our academy, which launched last year and provides an online resource to provide training for all our colleagues to enable them to develop and progress through the business, has proved very successful, resulting in a significant reduction in staff turnover.” The business did not receive any government grants (2022: £38,000). Individual Restaurants features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book. Its turnover of £65,600,000 for the year ending 26 March 2023 is the 143rd highest in the database. The Blue Book ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors’ earnings for the past five years. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.