Fri 2nd Feb 2024 - Hawksmoor reports record year of turnover and profit Hawksmoor reports record year of turnover and profit: Steakhouse concept Hawksmoor has said that 2023 was a stand-out year for the business, as it saw turnover increase by more than 20% to a record £90m (2022: £73.9m). Meanwhile, its established restaurants delivered Ebitda margins in excess of 20%. The company currently operates 12 restaurants in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Dublin and New York, with a site in Chicago opening later this year. Last May, the business opened a site in Dublin, which it said is hitting weekly sales highs in excess of €230,000 (£196,142). During the year, the company was also ranked number two among the World’s Best Steak Restaurants – the highest ranking of any steakhouse in Europe or the US. In what is the longest run for any hospitality company in the UK, Hawksmoor gained a 12th consecutive ranking among the top 100 employers in the UK (Best Companies) and a 13th consecutive year with a maximum three-star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. Will Beckett, co-founder and chief executive of Hawksmoor, said: “2023 was a stand-out year for Hawksmoor. While it’s always fantastic to deliver great numbers, what really motivates my co-founder Huw [Gott], me, and the rest of the team is demonstrating how financially successful restaurants can be when they strive to deliver real integrity at scale. Being a B Corp and achieving great growth and profits is something we’re all extremely proud of.” Chair Dame Karen Jones added: “Hawksmoor’s results are, again, excellent. They are a testament to an unswerving focus on our customers, the quality and strength-in-depth of the management team, and to Hawksmoor’s enduring appeal as an employer of choice. These are special restaurants, and Hawksmoor is a special business.” This year, Hawksmoor will open its most ambitious restaurant to date – a 16,500 square-foot restaurant in Chicago. This is the company’s second site in the US, following its “highly successful and critically acclaimed restaurant” in New York, and further builds on the team’s international strategy and ambitions. Last November, Beckett told Propel that the business was at a stage “capacity, bandwidth and cash wise, where we could do a couple of restaurants a year now” and was focused on opening “world class restaurants in world class cities”. On further openings beyond Chicago, he said: “That 16,000 square-foot site in Chicago is fairly heavy on our mind! We have looked at many things, we did put an offer on something, but we haven’t added to the pipeline yet. We’re excited about finding opportunities, but our shorthand for what we do is ‘world class restaurants in world class cities’. So, if we don't feel like we can build a world class restaurant and all that goes with that, if we don’t feel like there’s a beautiful building in a world class city with something special about it, then we’re not going to rush into doing something that falls short of that standard. We’d like to open more restaurants, but there aren’t a huge number of those buildings around, and we would rather do fewer things brilliantly than go faster, but fall short of world class. New York is trading really well. It’s like-for-likes are among the highest in the company, against strong sales last year. Now we’re into the third year there, we understand the business that we’ve opened. We understand the environment that we’re in, and we feel like it’s time to start building on that momentum in the US.” Hawksmoor features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the next version of which will be sent to Premium Club members next Friday (9 February) and has grown to 875 companies. Hawkmoor’s turnover of £90m is the 104th 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 Premium Club 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.