Having posted full year results to March in line with expectations, everyting seems to be going according to plan at fast growing restaurant group Clapham House.

The group increased restaurant numbers organically by 61% during the year and thanks to the post-year end acquisition of the 30 Tootsies restaurants (from AIM peer Urban Dining) the group has now doubled its total estate to 61. According to chief executive David Page - a shareholder of Urban Dining, the integration of the Tootsies outlets has been 'rapid'.

The restaurants operate under four brands (Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Bombay Bicycle Club, the Real Greek and Tootsies). Three new sites have been opened in the first quarter and at least ten openings are expected in the current year. The group has marked out more than 100 potential locations where it would like to open a Gourmet Burger outlet, including more than 60 in London. A similar list is being drawn up for the Bombay Bicycle brand.

The restaurants are strongly cash generative and produced a net cash inflow of £0.6m from operating activities and net cash stood at £7.3m at year-end. To fund expansion, terms on a new £19m bank debt facility have recently been agreed.

For the year to March, a maiden profit before tax and exceptionals of £1.1m was recorded on sales up 132% to £17.3m. Earnings came in at 2.9p per share. Page confirms that trade across the group in the first two months of the year has been ‘encouraging’ and says he is ‘looking forward to the rest of the year with confidence’.

Although the shares are currently trading at high levels, broker Daniel Stewart forecasts a 152 per cent increase in earnings to 7.3p a share for 2007, and again almost doubling to 13.8 in 2008. Buy.