14th Jan 2016 08:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Restaurant Group PLC Thursday said it expects its full year earnings to be substantially ahead of the previous year after revenue rose by 8.0%, but warned it is more cautious about 2016 over concerns about like-for-like sales trending lower.
Restaurant Group shares were down 1.6% to 628.0 pence on Thursday morning.
The restaurant operator said total turnover in the 52 week period ended December 27 rose 7.9%, with like-for-like sales growing by 1.5%. That is expected to lead to "material growth" to the company's full year earnings and cashflow, but profits will be in line with current expectations, it said.
However, the company also noted that recent data from the retail sector and the wider economy has shown that the trading environment for many consumer facing businesses has been tougher in recent months than it was earlier in 2015.
"This has caused like-for-like sales growth to trend lower and accordingly we are more cautious than previously on the outlook for 2016. A possible referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, national living wage implementation and global uncertainty are all additional issues that we are conscious of going into the new year," said the company.
Despite the cautious outlook, the company said its portfolio has "strong market positions", and said it is still confident it can deliver further profitable progress in 2016 and subsequent years.
On a brighter note, Restaurant Group opened 44 new outlets during 2015 and said it plans to open more stores moving forward.
"We are very pleased with how these (new stores) are trading and they are set to deliver strong returns. We have good visibility on the composition of the opening programme and we anticipate opening a broadly similar number of new restaurants during 2016," said the company.
Restaurant Group's major brands include Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Coast to Coast, Garfunkel's, Home Counties Pub Restaurants and Brunning & Price.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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