Thu 25th Jul 2024 - Exclusive: Big Table Group swings Leisure Division into profit Exclusive – Big Table Group swings Leisure Division into profit: The Big Table Group – the operator of Las Iguanas, Banana Tree and Bella Italia, has told Propel that the business is in “a good place” with what it has done with the former TRG Leisure Division, with the division, which includes Frankie & Benny’s, now back in profit after seven months under its ownership. At the end of October last year, the business completed the deal for the 75-strong TRG Leisure Division, which includes Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito, for £1, with The Restaurant Group paying a cash contribution of £7.5m. The division was loss making when it was acquired, and after around seven months, it has made £3.5m. It comes as the business is gearing up to trial a brunch offer in Frankie & Benny’s. Morgan said: “We are in a good place with what we have done with the leisure division. The business is now stabilised, the profit conversion has improved and we’ve got some good tests coming up. Some of the early feedback from when we first bought Frankie & Benny’s was that we needed to major a little bit more on some of the New York elements. Some of which lends itself a little bit more to all-day trading and a strong brunch offer. We don’t expect brunch alone to be a huge sales lever, but leaning more into the New York proposition allows us to add products that sit between breakfast and lunch like pastrami bagels, which means we have a stronger offer to capture guests late morning/11am rather than lunch service starting at 12pm. We are going to try it in three different sites just to see what the appetite is, testing in our main location types of leisure, city and town/high street, and we’ll see what happens. But, by and large, we’re not changing the broader offer that much. We’ll be putting a few things on the menu that we can talk a little bit more about and remind guest that we’re open to trade all day, so it will be more of a subconscious proposition message that just brings Frankie’s to the front of mind a little bit more. New York Italian is growing faster than it’s ever grown before, but no one thinks of Frankie & Benny’s as New York Italian. The biggest response you get when you ask guests about Frankie & Benny’s is are they still open? Not surprising, given the number of closures post-pandemic, so for us, there is certainly an awareness piece to do of saying yes, we are here, and actually, there is a site nearby open all day. They average significantly higher average weekly sales than the market average, so when people know Frankie’s and it’s there, they want to use it. The Frankie & Benny’s sites take a lot more money than we would have estimated pre-sale, but they were losing more money than we could have estimated. Stage one was always to fix the profit loss. It was loss making when we bought it; we’ve had it for around seven months now and it’s made £3.5m so far. So by and large, Frankie’s is looking good and we’re excited about the next steps for the brand. Chiquito is in a good place now too, and while I don’t have plans to grow the brand in the immediate future, that’s different to saying it will disappear from the high street overnight. Guests enjoy it and the locations add to our portfolio, giving us optionality in the future, and of course, if something happens over the next six to 12 months that it starts flying, then I might reappraise that decision. We converted our Bolton Chiquito to Las Iguanas earlier this year, which is going really well, and we will be doing another one. However, as most Chiquito’s are located where we already have Las Iguanas, there is no plan to convert all.” Big Table Group features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, which is available exclusively to Premium Club members and features 947 companies. The group’s turnover of £223,189,000 for the year to 30 October 2023 is the 52nd highest in the database. 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.