Oriental expects profits shortfall

ORIENTAL Restaurant group expects to make £300,000 less profit than it originally forecast in the year to 31 March.

Group brokers Greig Middleton and Company cut predicted profits of £1.8m for the year to £1.5m last week.

The reduced forecasts came as a second blow to Oriental, which in December announced a drop in pre-tax profits to £612,000 from £701,000 for the six months to September (Caterer, 3 December 1998, page 9).

The group blames difficult trading conditions in the City, where it has six of its eight restaurants. Operating costs at its newest restaurant, the 250-seat Pacific Oriental, which opened in October, have also been higher than expected.

Oriental has made an unspecified number of redundancies to cut costs but plans to go ahead with further restaurant openings in London.