Volcanic ash cloud leads to £500k loss at The Restaurant Group
The volcanic ash cloud, which caused major disruption to air travel last month, hit 90 per cent of The Restaurant Group's airport business and led it to lose £500k of trade, the company said today in a statement.
The Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's operator, which has 50 sites at airports and stations, said group like-for-like sales would have been up 1.5 per cent on the same period last year had air travel in and out of the UK not ground to a halt for six days in April.
"Our Concessions division was in good growth until the ash cloud halted air travel and we saw five days of sales decline in excess of 90 per cent in our airport business," it said ahead of today's Annual General Meeting.
Interim sales
TRG, which operates 370 restaurants and pubs under the Frankie & Benny's, Garfunkel's, Chiquito's, Blubeckers and Brunning & Price brands, has seen like-for-like sales rise 0.5 per cent overall for the 18 weeks to 2 May.
The company said trade at its concessions sites was 'returning towards normal' although had been impacted by some suspension of flights over Scotland and Ireland in the past two days.
It said: "Despite some difficult external factors adversely impacting on our business during the first four months of the year we are encouraged by the positive start we have made to 2010. Our unique market positioning, strong brands and motivated teams continue to benefit The Restaurant Group and we are confident of reporting further profitable progress in our upcoming interim results."
So far this year TRG has opened seven new sites. "All are trading well and we expect to open a total of 15-25 new units during 2010," it added.
