USA: Granite City Food & Brewery revenues increased by 18.1% for the full year 2005
Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. reported on March 13 the results of operations for the fourth quarter and year ended December 27, 2005, as well as year to date 2006 comparable restaurant sales increases. Comparable restaurant sales include restaurants in operation for over 18 months.
For the quarter ended December 27, 2005, total revenue was $10,094,888 compared to $7,978,012 for the fourth quarter of 2004, an increase of 26.5%. Comparable restaurants sales decreased (0.1%) in the fourth quarter of 2005 over the fourth quarter of 2004. The Company reported a net loss of ($1,704,069), or ($0.14) per share, for the quarter ended December 27, 2005, compared to a net loss of ($314,916), or ($0.04) per share, for the fourth quarter of 2004.
For the fifty-two weeks ended December 27, 2005, total revenue was $36,204,536 compared to $30,644,691 for the same period last year, an increase of 18.1%. Comparable restaurants sales decreased (0.7%) for 2005. The Company reported a net loss of ($3,667,367), or ($0.31) per share, for the year ended December 27, 2005, compared to a net loss of ($1,330,775), or ($0.25) per share, for the prior year.
"Our net loss in 2005 was primarily attributable to the pre-opening costs we incurred for the four restaurants we opened from July 2005 through January 2006 and the increased general and administrative expense we incurred as we formed our corporate team from external and internal candidates." said Steve Wagenheim, Granite City Food & Brewery's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We also made significant investments in 2005 in training and building our restaurant management ranks to support our restaurant growth plans." Wagenheim added, "While G&A is currently high as a percentage of revenue, we believe that this percentage will decline as we build the top line sales of our company through our planned 6 additional new restaurant openings in 2006 and our expected continued comp sales increases. In short, we believe that the G&A costs we are incurring today will increase our shareholder value in the long term as we continue to build high volume, strong performing restaurants that are supported by an experienced and cohesive corporate team."
Commenting on restaurant-level performance, Wagenheim stated, "We continue to be pleased with the performance of our restaurants and we are especially excited about the 2005 results for our mature restaurants that have been open more than one year and were built under our prototype model. These mature restaurants - restaurants 4 through 8 - delivered a restaurant-level EBITDA(a) as a percentage of sales of 17.8% for 2005 which we believe is in the top tier of performance for the casual dining segment. We are also pleased with the performance of the four new restaurants we opened in the second half of 2005 and early 2006: Wichita, KS, Eagan, MN and Kansas City, MO in 2005, and in January 2006, Kansas City, KS. As is typical in the casual dining segment, these new restaurants will take approximately six months of operations for the new management teams to become more accustomed to predicting, managing and servicing the sales volumes expected at their new restaurants. As such, we are looking forward to our new restaurants contributing towards our company's overall performance as we move into the spring and summer months."
"We are already off to a solid start for 2006," continued Wagenheim. "Year to date comp sales through our first two operating periods of 2006 are up 6.7%. This comp sales percentage increase is particularly important for our investors and our company as beginning in 2006 we now have eight restaurants in our comp sales base, whereas at the beginning of 2005 we only had three restaurants in our comp sales base and those three restaurants were our early stage, non-prototype restaurants."
Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. currently operates twelve Granite City Food & Brewery casual dining restaurants featuring made-from-scratch food and handcrafted beers. Its broad menu offers traditional and regional foods served in generous portions at reasonable prices, affording guests an excellent value and great dining experience. Its first Granite City location, in St. Cloud, MN, opened in June 1999. Subsequently, the Company opened restaurants in Sioux Falls, SD, Fargo, ND, West Des Moines, IA, Cedar Rapids, IA, Davenport, IA, Lincoln, NE, Maple Grove, MN, Wichita, KS, Eagan, MN, Kansas City, MO, and Kansas City, KS. A thirteenth location in Olathe, KS is scheduled to open within 60 days.
Înapoi
(libra 0.7422 sec.)