Wagamama reports growth ahead of competition
Casual dining group Wagamama has reported like-for-like growth of 9.7% during the first half of its current financial year and is substantially ahead of a largely flat market.
The total sales increase of £61.1m for the second quarter of the year to 6 November 2016 was up 14.4% on the same period the previous year.
Like-for-like sales are now said to have outperformed the competition for 133 consecutive weeks.
Recent operational highlights include the opening of Wagamama's first restaurant in New York in mid-November, followed by three weeks of strong trading.
Other key openings have taken place in Bankside and St Paul's in London, Peterborough and Ipswich. Meanwhile, franchise launches overseas include sites in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Meydan, Turkey; and North West, New Zealand.
David Campbell, chief executive of the Oriental noodle chain, said the New York opening marks the start of the creation of an iconic global restaurant brand. "The restaurant opened to critical acclaim and while it is early days, it is already trading within the top five restaurants within the company," he explained.
"The US is an important expansion market for Wagamama and we have further leases either signed, or in the process of being signed, in both New York City and Boston."
Launched in 1992, Wagamama today operates 163 restaurants across 19 countries.
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