City Centre and ASK serve a success

CITY Centre Restaurants, which expects to complete its £168m takeover of rival ASK Central by the end of this month, today reported a buoyant Christmas trading season.

Chairman Alan Jackson said customers flowed into all its restaurants, from Frankie & Benny's to the airport concessions, and business rebounded for Garfunkel's in London.

Like-for-like sales in the two weeks spanning Christmas and the New Year jumped by more than 7%, bringing a full-year sales rise of 3%.

Jackson said that with a lower interest charge and a strong contribution from new openings, the board was confident of reporting 'an excellent trading performance for the year to 31 December'.

ASK Central had a similarly strong Christmas, with sales growth at all the restaurants that were open in the same period the previous year. It has opened 30 restaurants in the past 12 months, taking the total to 171. The most successful-new format is the American-style grill Jo Shmo, which has trial sites in Wimbledon, and Kingston and Guildford in Surrey.

Franchised delivery company Domino's Pizza said like-for-like sales in the five weeks to 28 December were 4.7% ahead of the same period 12 months previously. Average sales from all its stores hit a record in the final week of the year. Domino's also said it had met its target of opening 50 new stores during 2003.

Caterers' rich pickings: Pages 38-39