Richard Caring’s rapid rollout of The Ivy restaurant brand has delivered record sales and profits despite the challenges facing the hospitality sector, latest accounts reveal.
Troia (UK) Restaurants, which owns the original Theatreland celebrity haunt as well as dozens of other sister venues that bear its name, saw sales grow by half to £302.9 million in 2022. Pre-tax profits were also higher, from £20.4 million to £29 million.
Caring bought The Ivy in 2005 and launched the first spin-off, Ivy Market Grill in Covent Garden, in 2014. Since then, there has been a quickfire expansion all over the UK, including under the Ivy Asia format, which has been the focus of much of the recent expansion.
The accounts for Troia cover the first full year of trading since the disruptions and closures of the pandemic.
They say “trading was very strong throughout the year as customer confidence returned and restaurants could return to utilising their full capacities.
“There was very strong growth compared to pre-Covid results in 2019, driven by the expansion of the Ivy Asia brand including five Ivy Asia restaurants, as well as an additional two Ivy Brasseries during the period.”
The business was able to keep its costs down even as fuel prices soared in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, having locked in an energy price.
The original Ivy restaurant in Covent Garden was founded in 1917, and became popular with stars of the West End like Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward.
Caring initially made much of his fortune with fashion supplier International Clothing Designs, before he turned to the restaurant sector.
