Rockfish, the South West Seafood restaurant group run by Mitch Tonks, has released results for the year end 2019.
Mitch Tonks: “2018/19 was a real turning point for our business. We saw some tremendous like-for-like sales, opened one restaurant but also paused to consider what was going on in the wider industry and economy and focused on strengthening our senior team and building the pipeline for the future.
In the year we opened a fantastic restaurant in Exeter, appointed Dave Strauss as Restaurant Director, continued to invest in our current people & our fish supply business (including having a dedicated trawler out at sea fishing for the best seafood in the world) and we completed on sites in Weymouth (which opened this year) and Poole.
We secured a further site in Sidmouth and expect to announce more locations shortly, which will underpin our growth into 2021. In the year we refinanced the business and found an excellent partner in Gresham Ventures, who were as excited as we are about our future plans.”
The financial highlights are
2019 2018
- Sales £7.95m £6.90m
- Restaurant EBITDA £1.40m £1.351m
- Group EBITDA. £.50m £.60m
- Central Costs £0.89m £0.74m
- Operating Profit (£94k) £114k
Will Beckett, Chairman of Rockfish and CEO of Hawksmoor: “Rockfish continues to amaze me – it’s such a special business, consistently opening wonderful restaurants while also contributing to the local economy in areas most restaurateurs have never visited let alone considered opening in, and to the local fishing industry. Mitch and his team have a wonderful blend of ambition and pragmatism that I think will serve Rockfish well for many years to come.”