3Sixty Restaurants sees like-for-like sales boost despite revenue drop

3Sixty Restaurants, the company that operates the Rocket and Ego restaurant brands, has reported rising like-for-like sales and site EBITDA, despite the fact that revenue and pre-tax profit at the group fell.

The company, led by chief executive James Horler, saw its turnover for the year to 31 March 2014 drop by around £200,000 to £13.1m, while it made a pre-tax loss of just over £456,000.

The reduction in turnover was as a result of the sale in November 2012 of Rocket's Mayfair site, which was a major contributor to 3Sixty's £2.4m pre-tax profit in 2013.

Horler said he was pleased, given the sale of the site, that turnover had dropped by comparatively little. "It is a pretty good performance considering we decided to sell our highest-grossing site," he said.

Meanwhile, he pointed to the fact that overall like-for-like sales in the business were up by over 5% during the 12 months to 31 March 2014, while site EBITDA was also up to £1.2m. Like-for-like sales have also risen by around 5% during the six months to September.

The business now has five Rocket sites and nine Egos, having used some of the proceeds from the sale of the Mayfair site to open a Rocket in Holborn in London, and the first Ego in a pub, in Stockton Brook in Staffordshire.

Horler said that for the past 18 months, like-for-like growth had been stronger outside of London and that he was particularly pleased with the progress of the Stockton Brook site, which was "miles ahead of where we thought it would be".

"It looks good, feels good, and has been well understood by people and I think they like it," he said of the site.