National Trust restaurants break record

Fine weather helped National Trust restaurants turn over more than 1m in the August bank holiday week, breaking all previous records for a seven-day period.

The record-busting sales were made by the 120 restaurants and tearooms owned and managed by the National Trust between 29 August and 4 September.

Although the August bank holiday is traditionally one of the National Trust's busiest times, poor weather hit visitor numbers in 2004.

This year, sales soared by 11% during the bank holiday week and four regions, led by the South-east of England, achieved sales of more than 100,000.

The National Trust's catering operation has an annual turnover of £26m, and has boosted its profit margins by more than 400% in the past four years, from £1.9m in 2001-02 to a forecast 6m in 2005-06.