Frankie & Benny's owner to cut 100 jobs

The Restaurant Group posted a pre-tax loss of £40m in the year to January 1 after being stung with a £117m exceptional charge linked to restructuring efforts.

In August, the firm, which is also behind Garfunkel’s, said it would shut 33 under-performing sites as part of strategic review in a move that affected around 1,000 staff.

The group will now close an additional eight restaurants this year, with around 100 jobs set to go.

Boss Andy McCue said he is “pursuing a new and focused plan to turnaround and grow the business”.

This will include finding efficiency savings including “reducing overheads, extracting further purchasing benefits from our scale and reducing the number of people we employ.

“This will involve some difficult decisions but we are confident our colleagues will embrace being part of a more efficient organisation.”

Revenue was up 3.7 per cent to £710.7m and, stripping out the exceptional charge, pre-tax profits came in at £77.1m.

Like-for-like sales fell 3.9 per cent over the period and Mr McCue, who was drafted in to the role last year, said the turnaround will take time.

“It will take time to effect the scale of change required and for customers to respond but I’m proud of how our colleagues are rising to the challenge.”

The Restaurant Group operates 488 restaurants and pubs and it also behind Chiquito, Coast To Coast and Brunning & Price.