Individual Restaurant Company sales rise on premium casual dining

Piccolino owner Individual Restaurant Company (IRC) has more than doubled its sales in the past eight months thanks to aggressive expansion.

With six new openings already completed since the start of its new financial year in July, IRC now has an estate of 26 restaurants, which includes secondary brand Restaurant Bar & Grill.

IRC chief executive Steven Walker, told Caterer: "This has been a big year in terms of our business plan when we did the deal… we wanted to focus on brining the two businesses together in order to have a bigger platform and we have turned the Bank and Zinc estate into our core brands."

"We have set out to serve customers simple dishes made well and we make everything on the premises. Yes we are a chain but we concentrate very heavily on food quality, as well as cleanliness and quality of service," said Walker.

Walker added that while IRC offered pizza and pasta dishes that competed with chains such as Pizza Express and Ask on price, the diversity of dishes on the menu meant that customers would "order up".

IRC targets an average customer meal spend of £18 a head on food operating in what analysts have dubbed the premium casual dining segment of the eating out market.

Sales increased by 175% for the eight months ending 30 June to £25.7m and pre-tax profit leapt 159% to £1.8m.

Like-for-like sales at Piccolino's and Restaurant Bar & Grill increased by 52% to £5.7m.

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By Christopher Walton

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