Individual Restaurant Company secures refinancing

Individual Restaurant Company, which owns 33 restaurants under its Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill brands, has refinanced its loan facility and shaved more than £1m from its debt pile.

The firm released its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 4 July 2010 this morning, which revealed a turnover of £24.6m, largely the same as the £25.1m reported for the same period last year.

Pre-tax profits at the business, which serves around 32,000 customers a week, were down year-on-year, however, at £700,000 (2009: £1.3m). Its restaurants made a profit of £2.7m (2009: £3.3m), with part of the decline due to increased site payroll costs driven by changes to the rules defining the national minimum wage last October.

The group's £18.5m loan facility was reorganised and extended by 12 months to January 2013. An amortising facility on the loan was also cancelled as part of the refinancing.

Its net debt reduced to £15m, compared to £16.4m in w2009, and the firm said it had £3.5m of banking headroom available for the remainder of the year.

Steven Walker, chief executive of IRC, said: "I have been pleased by the return to revenue growth generally experienced over the past five months (excluding the Football World Cup month of June) and I remain confident in the inherent strength of both of our brands.

“The task now is to find a way that the group can capitalize on this inherent strength, bearing in mind the current funding constraints on expansion capital."