D&D dining to hit £100m turnover

Booming sales at the D&D London fine dining group — owner of venues such as Quaglino’s, Le Pont de la Tour and Coq d’Argent — will smash the £100 million barrier for the first time this year.

The strength of the capital’s economy saw revenues jump 18% to £93.1 million and underlying profits rose 18% last year with growth in the City restaurants outstripping the West End for the first time since the financial crash.

Turnover, meanwhile, rose 7% on a like-for-like basis in the last six months. This marks an acceleration from last year when underlying sales grew by around 5%, said Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London.

Gunewardena said: “In the past couple of years we have opened South Place Hotel and the restaurants at the Old Bengal Warehouse, bought Madison in the City, relaunched Avenue and now Quaglino’s and this reflects the fact that we are very, very confident about the business in London. Revenue growth is the fastest we have seen in 10 years.

“This year feel like London is really back in the swing of things.”

Gunewardena added: “Longer term we have secured a number of landmark restaurant sites which will deliver a continuation of growth in earnings in future years.

"We are also actively considering a number of sites for our second hotel after the critical and financial success of South Place”.

In the present financial year, the group will invest more than £10 million, he said.