Groupe Chez Gérard puts brake on new restaurant openings

Restaurant operator Groupe Chez Gérard has cancelled some of its proposed new restaurant openings.

The move is a response to the economic uncertainty caused by the events of 11 September.

Group chief executive David Williams said that although the group's results for the year ending 1 July were in line with a trading update issued on 22 June, conditions since then had continued to be difficult.

With the full economic impact of the attacks on the USA still unclear, Williams said it was "prudent to restrict new restaurant openings".

In the year to 1 July, group turnover saw a small increase of 0.2% to £38.3m, from £38.2m in 2000. Pre-tax profit was £2m, from a loss of £2.8m in 2000.

Williams said the group was still ambitious, but as the recovery in tourism now looked less likely the group would "take all sensible measures to conserve cash".

The group opened six new restaurants in the last financial year, bringing the total portfolio to 24. New Chez Gérards opened in Manchester and Bristol, and Livebaits in Manchester and London.

Since the year-end, Groupe Chez Gérard has opened three new restaurants: one Chez Gérard, in Cambridge, and two Livebait restaurants, in Oxford and Leeds.

The group has also secured a second airport site, at Gatwick North terminal, where a Chez Gérard will open in November. The company's second Livebait in the City of London will also open in November this year.

With the exception of a Chez Gérard in Birmingham, the remainder of the group's opening plans have been put off until the general economic outlook becomes clearer, Williams said.

by Samantha McClary