Restaurant group Fish! has reported a 12% slide in 2000 pre-tax profits
to £2.2m, from £2.4m during 1999. Sales increased by £2m, reaching
£21m for the whole financial year. The consumer view of fish as a healthy
dish and bad press relating to meat has helped boost profits.
Fish is the brainchild of chairman Tony Allan, the entrepreneur who nearly
gained a more infamous reputation after, he explains, "we were almost part
and parcel of killing [the Queen Mother],"who nearly choked to death on
a fish bone supplied to her restaurant by Fish’s wholesale arm.
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The wholesale venture is no longer in business, but the company still operates
a small scallop farming business in Scotland. It also operates a supply business
called Cutty and Allan is in discussions to roll out the Fish brand across
30 sites.
Allan commented that company’s main focus is on the expansion of its popular
diners and fish dishes, for which restaurant goers in Birmingham have been prepared
to wear hard hats to enjoy, visiting the four week old outlet while its surrounding
Mailbox shopping centre was still in construction.
The company has plans to increase the chain, which currently numbers six, to
22 outlets by October of next year, an expansion that will cost around £8m.
Analysts are wary about the formation of ambitious plans for Fish. Its sector
rivals City Centre Restaurants and Belgo have experienced financial
difficulties and while Fish’s record is good, its shares have plummeted from
300p to 143.5p over the course of the last year.
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By GlobalData
