Bank delivers healthy return

The Bank Group's first annual results since its AIM flotation last March showed no signs of the slowdown forecast for London restaurants.

Its restaurant division's 17% rise in operating profits (to £1.43m in the year to 31 October) sprang largely from the 230-seat Bank restaurant in the Aldwych. The average amount spent there by diners climbedby 3% to £40-£45 and covers - 3,600 to 4,000 a week - were4% up.

Chairman Tony Allan said that money spent over Christmas climbed by 5% and, after a slow start, January trade accelerated into an "astonishing" February.

This year saw the opening of the Lawn restaurant at London's Blackheath, the first of a planned series of smaller Bank-style restaurants that will average 140-160 seats, with diners spending £30-£35 each on average. More openings will follow, at Birmingham's Brindley Place this year, St James Court Hotel in Westminster early next year and, possibly, the former Scotsman building in Edinburgh.

But, said Allan, the group's main thrust would be to open at least six mid-market Fish! restaurants by the end of 2000, each seating between 70 and 120 diners, spending about £25-£30 each.

The delayed opening late last month (20 February) of the first Fish!, in London's Borough Market, was so successful that 250 diners could not get a seat and the reservations line had to be closed. A second site at Smithfield Market is currently under negotiation.