Pho to continue expansion amid 33.6% rise in FY23 turnover
During FY23, the group served 3.8 million covers across its restaurants compared with 2.7 million in the year prior
Pho has secured additional funding to allow for continued expansion of Vietnamese street food restaurants through the next several years, as its turnover increased 33.6% to £58.3m in the year ending 19 February 2023.
According to the group’s filings on Companies House, recent performance has buoyed the company’s confidence in the recovery of the market. During FY23, the group served 3.8 million covers across its restaurants compared with 2.7 million in the year prior.
The renewed expansion plans comes after funding secured in 2021 helped Pho open five new restaurants in Cheltenham, Plymouth, York, Bournemouth and Canary Wharf.
While the group’s profit before tax fell from £5.6m in 2022 to £1.8m in FY23, Pho attributed the small profits to the government’s various pandemic-related concessions and grants last year.
The group’s EBITDA was also affected, falling to £5.8m from a high of £8.2m in 2022. Pho also explained that the figure in the previous year was skewed by pandemic-related government reliefs.
Meanwhile, restaurant EBITDA stayed largely unchanged and only dipped slightly from £10.8m in 2022 to £10.4m in FY23.
At the end of FY23, the company had a total of 37 restaurants and five dark kitchens.
During Q1 of FY24, Pho has experienced an increase in its like-for-like sales, which is in addition to the group’s newly-opened sites.
Despite the on-set of several economic headwinds, Pho directors believe the company has “performed well” in the period with continued expansion.