Garfunkel's owner unveils record results

The owner of restaurants including Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s served up record results today after half-year profits lifted 40% to £9.8m (€14.3m).

The Restaurant Group, which has 255 sites in leisure parks and high streets, said it was confident of “another successful year” following the performance in the six months to June 30.

Travellers from all over the world will be familiar with the group's chain of Garfunkel's restaurants in all the main British airports.

Like-for-like sales lifted 3.7% in the first half but the group said the improvement had since gathered pace to show a 5% rise.

Leisure park business Frankie & Benny’s was one of the company’s best performing operations with same-store sales up 6.7% and profits at the 92-strong chain ahead by 25%. A further 10 openings are planned later this year.

The group also hailed the turnaround of its Chiquito business, which benefited from a new management team to lift like-for-like sales by 2.8%.

The performance in the high street restaurants division was solid with the company battling against strong competition in the sector to improve profits to £5.4m (€7.9m) from £4.9m (€7.2m) a year earlier.

In its 25th year, Garfunkel’s continued to deliver strong growth with like-for-like sales up 4.5% on last time. Est Est Est and the 60 units in the Caffe Uno chain both reported falling sales, the company said.