The Restaurant Group appoints non-executive director

The Restaurant Group has announced the appointment of Loraine Woodhouse as a non-executive director. She joins the company’s board as of today’s date (4 July) and will become a member of both the audit and nomination committees.

Woodhouse is currently a non-executive director and chair of the audit committee at The British Land Company plc, and from 1 November 2018 to 16 June 2022 was CFO at Halfords Group plc. Before joining Halfords, she reportedly spent five years in senior finance roles at John Lewis, including as finance director of Waitrose. 

Prior to that, Woodhouse was chief financial officer of Hobbs, finance director of Capital Shopping Centres Limited (subsequently Intu plc), and finance director of Costa Coffee Limited. Her early career experience included finance and investor relations roles at Kingfisher plc.

The Restaurant Group plc operates approximately 400 restaurants and pub restaurants throughout the UK, with its principal trading brands include Wagamama, Frankie and Benny’s, as well as Brunning and Price. It also operates a multi-brand concessions business which trades principally in UK airports. 

In addition, the Wagamama business is said to have a 20% stake in a JV operating five Wagamama restaurants in the US and over 50 franchise restaurants operating across a number of territories.

Ken Hanna, The Restaurant Group chairman, said: “I am delighted to welcome Loraine to the board. As well as her strong listed finance experience, she has worked across many different sectors, with a particular focus on consumer service businesses. 

“Loraine will bring critical experience and depth to the company, and I and the rest of the board look forward to working with her.”