Comptoir losses widen but revenue rises despite 'challenging' environment

AIM-listed Comptoir Group reported a bigger pre-tax loss for the first half on Friday although revenue grew despite a "challenging" environment.

For In the half year to 30 June, the company made a pre-tax loss of 755,833 compared to a loss of £435,454 the year before, but revenue rose by 36% to £13.1m.

Comptoir said it experienced a number of additional cost pressures including higher supplier costs due to currency exchange rate variations, consumer spending impacting on average spend per transaction, increase in business rates and the National living Wage, which was implemented at the beginning of April 2017.

Non-executive chairman Richard Kleiner said: "Notwithstanding the challenging environment that has subsisted since early 2017, I am pleased to see that, over the last few months, the business revenue has stabilised. The company is therefore in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities that the board believe will arise over the foreseeable future. I would also like to thank my fellow directors and the whole of the Comptoir Group team for their efforts over the interim period to the end of June 2017."

The group, which owns the Comptoir Libanais brand, said it had seen a "significant" increase in level of promotional activity within the restaurant sector but has decided not to discount but rather improve its offering to bring more value for money for the group's customers.

Comptoir said it has seen a "noticeable improvement" in trading during the last few months as the nine new restaurant opened in the second half of 2016 have bedded in.

"The growing maturity of these restaurants has led to increased sales, which also has a positive impact on the labour cost margin and therefore the profitability of the group". As a result, the company said it is confident of meeting expectations for the full year, which will be weighted more towards the second half.

At 1005 BST, the shares were down 1.2% to 16.80p.