The Six by Nico restaurant chain has revealed plans to expand after returning to the black during its latest financial year.
The group, which has sites in Manchester and Liverpool, has reported operating profits from continuing operations of £4.4m for the 12 months to June 2022, up from a loss of £600,000 in the prior 15 months.
Its turnover also increased from £18.1m to £30.8m over the same period.
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EBITDA from continuing operations was £5m compared to a loss of £100,000 in the 15 months to June 2021.
During the 12 months to June 2022, the company invested £3.9m to open new Six by Nico sites in Canary Wharf (August 2021), Dublin (November 2021) and Aberdeen (April 2022), and Tan&ns (September 2021), a wine importer that supplies all the group's 'wet' requirements.
An £11.5m funding facility was also agreed with challenger bank ThinCats to support Sixco’s expansion strategy.
Led by CEO and founder Nico Simeone, the group is now planning to open four new sites in the next 12 months as well as new bar and bakery ventures in the first and second quarters of 2023.
The group is drawing up plans for international expansion, with potential for a new venture in Dubai towards the end of 2023.
Mr Simeone said: "While Covid was a huge challenge, we’ve bounced back very strongly, thanks to our amazingly loyal customer base who stayed with us through the lockdowns and have returned to our restaurants in phenomenal numbers.
"That’s down to our dedicated and hard-working team who have been absolutely brilliant - delivering consistent creativity and fun experiences day-in, day-out."
Chairman Rob Wirszycz said: "Nico’s genius in coming up with the concept of fixed-price, six-course tasting menus that change every six weeks has struck a resounding chord with the dining public.
"Crucially, thanks to our core strategy of building customer loyalty, we emerged strongly from the pandemic and now have a fast-expanding database of more than 550,000 engaged and active customers, all literally hungry for the experiences we deliver.
"Our headcount has expanded to over 500 colleagues, despite the well-known challenges the industry has faced in recruitment and retention, and our employee benefits are highly competitive.
"The plans we have developed to extend our network and broaden our offering in the UK and overseas are enormously exciting.
"We’ve done our homework and are confident we’ll continue to deliver on our ethos of bringing incredible value for money and great food and drink experiences, that we believe gives us a level of resilience at a tough time for the sector more generally."
Mr Simeone added: "At our core we are creative, agile and driven to deliver for our customers and 2023 promises to be our most exciting year.
"We’re really confident that, despite the economic headwinds, our high-value and high-experience restaurants will continue to excite our customers into the new year and beyond."
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