Oriental Restaurants lose £2.3m
The Oriental Restaurant Group, which owns 12 restaurants in the London area, plunged into the red in the year to 31 March, after incurring exceptional costs of £2.83m.
The exceptional items turned a £544,000 operating profit into a £2.3m pre-tax loss, against the previous year's pre-tax profit of £1.5m. Turnover grew to £12.7m, up from £10.7m the year before.
The exceptional costs stemmed from the opening of a central production kitchen in Park Royal, north London, and the impact of increased competition on the Pacific Oriental restaurant in Bishopsgate
The group's Shimla Pinks restaurant (formerly Sri India) also continued to make a loss, although this fell from £92,000 to £12,000.
Profits were also affected by the costs of developing the new mid-spend Yellow River Café brand, which is intended to form the focus of future growth.
Since opening the first Yellow River outlet in Chiswick in November 1999, the group has added sites in Twickenham and Islington. These will shortly be joined by new sites in St John's Wood in August, Guildford in the autumn and Portsmouth in November.
The Pacific Oriental had, said the group, suffered from new restaurants opening nearby such as Coq d'Argent, One Lombard Street, and the four Conran restaurants in the Great Eastern Hotel in Liverpool Street.
by Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk
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