CCR dishes up tasty 11% more
FAMILIES going to the movies or the swimming pool and staying on for a meal afterwards helped City Centre Restaurants to strong first-half profits and sales growth.
The flagship Frankie & Benny's restaurants - located in multiplex cinemas, health clubs and bowling alleys - lifted profits by a quarter, boosting group pre-tax profits by 11% to £6.7m.
CCR, which also owns the Caffe Uno and Garfunkel's chains, said it was well placed for the full year and its value meals for £10 to £12 would stand it in good stead in the event of a consumer downturn.
Like-for-like sales growth has slowed recently to about 3% from 4%. Only a poor performance from the Tex-Mex chain Chiquito marred the figures.
Management there has been replaced and put under the charge of Kevin Bacon, who heads Frankie & Benny and now joins the main board. The interim dividend is unchanged at 0.75p.
