Wildwood restaurant owner Tasty notes ‘disappointing’ holiday sales

The owner of Wildwood restaurants said sales were “disappointing” in the run-up to Christmas after he underwent a restructuring in the hope of reviving his fortunes.

Hotel group Tasty, which also owns dim sum chain Dim T, said it continued to maintain a “cautious outlook” as the casual dining sector endures “several headwinds”.

These include food cost inflation and declining consumer confidence and discretionary spending, as well as changes to national insurance and the living wage revealed in the October Government Budget.

Tasty closed 14 sites and laid off about 160 people during the first six months of 2024 as part of a restructuring aimed at reviving its profitability.

As a result, its turnover fell 12 per cent to £19.1m, although it recovered to a pre-tax profit of £13.4m after suffering a loss of £6.2m in the same period of the year. past.

Under the restructuring plan, Tasty expects to save its head office around £600,000 a year and improve its underlying pre-Nasties profits by £2.1m until 2025.

Additionally, the group expects to make £33.4m in revenue, generate £1.3m in cash and recover to a profit of £1.2m this financial year.

Tasty also said had obtained a settlement from his insurer worth £2.5 million, or around £1.5 million after legal and creditor costs.

The settlement concerned a claim for losses arising from a breach of an insurance contract in 2020, when hotel operators suffered severe restrictions on their business activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many insurers refused to pay business interruption losses arising from the pandemic until a High Court ruling in 2023 ruled in favor of some companies, including Pizza Express, in the matter.

Budget measures affect the hospitality industry

In the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that employers’ National Insurance rates would rise from the current 13.8 per cent tax on wages over £9,100 to 15 per cent on wages over £5,000 from April .

The national living wage will also rise by 77p to £12.21 an hour, while business rates relief for the hospitality industry will be reduced from 75 per cent to 40 per cent up to a cap of £110,000 per business.

Some major hotel companies such as Whitbread and JD Wetherspoon have warned that these measures will increase their annual costs by tens of millions of pounds.

Other companies have said they will have to raise prices, eliminate jobs, reduce investment or close stores.