Tasty Share News (TAST)

Restaurant group Tasty doubled profits and opened three new sites during the first half of the year, with another added in July. Tasty, which was founded by brothers Sam and Adam Kaye after they sold their previous business ASK Central, increased operating profits 39% to £1.05m in the 26 weeks to June 30th, which excluded non-ongoing costs related to restaurant pre-opening activities.At the pre-tax line, profits more than doubled to £0.8m, with basic earnings per share up 71% to 1.28p.The company opened three new restaurants to bring the total up to 17 Wildwoods at the period end, with six Dim T dim sum outlets, and four Wildwood Kitchens in the period, with a further opened just after the period end.The openings took capital expenditure to £2.5m in the period, with net cash outflow of £0.06m and £1.5m drawn down from its bank loan facility taking the balance to £2.5m.Chairman Keith Lassman said the group continued to look at new sites and has the resources to make further acquisitions should they arise.Shares in Tasty were up 3.1% to 4.3p at 11:31 on Tuesday. OH