(Alliance News) - Fulham Shore PLC on Monday announced resilient interim results with surging revenue and profit figures beating pre-pandemic levels.
For the first half ended September 26, the London-based restaurant operator saw its revenue double to GBP39.5 million from GBP19.5 million in the same period the previous year. This exceeds its pre-pandemic revenue of GBP36.0 million by 10% for the half-year ended September 29, 2019.
Fulham Shore, which owns the popular pizzeria chain Franco Manca, swung to a pretax profit of GBP4.2 million from a loss of GBP3.0 million in the same period the previous year. The bottom-line performance beat the pre-pandemic level of GBP743,000 posted two years before.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation nearly tripled to GBP10.4 million from GBP3.5 million in the same period the year prior. This is up a third from its pre-pandemic level of GBP7.8 million two years earlier.
Fulham Shore cited the opening of eight new sites combined with customers returning to its restaurants following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions as well as continued higher delivery and take out sales for its strong interim figures.
Chair David Page said: "During the half year, revenue more than doubled against the prior year and increased by 10% when compared to the first half to September 2019. This is despite being able to trade without restrictions and serve dine in customers for only 10 out of the 26 weeks of the half year. This strong performance continues to reflect the outstanding quality and value of our menus as well as the talent of the amazing teams across both of our restaurant businesses.
"With strong revenue growth in the half year and continued buoyant current trading, Fulham Shore is performing ahead of management's expectations with many restaurants throughout the UK continuing to break weekly trading records. This augurs well for the group's full year performance, which we expect to be now ahead of market expectations, and our UK wide expansion plans."
Shares in Fulham Shore PLC were up 5.7% at 17.70 pence on Monday morning in London.
By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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