Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group reports mediocre interim results
The Restaurant Group has reported lacklustre results for the first half of the year with a statutory loss before tax of £58.8m.
Total sales stood at £216.8m, a 4.5 per cent drop compared to the same period in 2020. The company made a modest recovery when it came to EBITDA which jumped from a loss of £18.2 to a profit of 11.2m year on year, helping to ease investor woes as earnings climbed from a loss of 11.2p per share to a loss of 4.7p.
Andy Hornby, Chief Executive Officer, said the company had made “good progress” over the first half of the year after securing refinancing and recapitalisation with the group raising £500m from loans and a senior credit facility.
He said, “whilst there are some well documented sector challenges to navigate in the short-term, particularly around labour availability and supply chain, we believe the Group is well positioned for the long- term.”
The first half of the financial year was severely disrupted by restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector, which included only being able to trade for delivery and takeaway during the first 15 weeks.
Since re-opening for dine-in, Wagamama has seen consistently strong trading, with like for like sales growth of 21% compared to 2019, representing a 13% outperformance versus the market.
Travel restrictions in airports continue to hit the outlet hard, however, with concessions down 53 per cent compare to pre-pandemic levels.
Labour and supply shortages, which are adding inflationary cost pressures, are presenting an ongoing challenge to the sector as a whole and are expected to continue into FY22.
The Restaurant Group said that its trading performance since re-opening supports an increase to its FY21 EBITDA expectations.
Nonetheless, share price is down 4.5 per cent today on the back of a shaky H1 performance.
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