Date:                      30 June 2008

On behalf of:          The Clapham House Group PLC ("Clapham House",  "the Company" or "the Group")

Embargoed until:    0700hrs

The Clapham House Group PLC 

Unaudited Preliminary Results for the year ended 30 March 2008

SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH IN TURNOVER AND PROFITS 

Clapham House, the restaurant group which owns and operates Gourmet Burger Kitchen ("GBK"), Tootsies, The Bombay Bicycle Club ("BBC") and The Real Greek ("TRG"), today announces its unaudited preliminary results for the year ended 30 March 2008. 

Highlights:

• Revenue up 30% for the year to £59.5m (2007: £45.9m) driven by strong organic growth

• Headline EBITDA* up 52% for the year to £8.9m (2007: £5.9m)

• Headline profit before taxation** up 30% for the year to £4.7m (2007: £3.7m)

• Headline diluted EPS** up 27% to 11.8p (2007 : 9.3p) 

• Restaurants operated at year end up to 96 (2007: 72)

• Net debt as at 30 March 2008 of £16.0m (2007: £9.5m)

• Statutory profit before taxation of £0.9m (2007: £1.5m)

• Statutory diluted EPS of 0.5p (2007: 3.2p)

Operational Highlights:

• Continued successful expansion of the GBK business - 21 new restaurants opened in the UK in FY08

• Tootsies sales stabilised following introduction of new management, new menus and sales promotions

• 2 further GBK openings since 30 March 2008

• The number of Group restaurants operated is now 98

Current trading:

• Current trading satisfactory

• Board cautious on UK economic outlook

*     Headline EBITDA is defined as headline profit before taxation and before depreciation and amortisation, finance income and finance costs.

**    Before impairment of property, plant and equipment, restructuring costs, share based payments, deferred taxation on share based payments and pre-opening costs..

David Page, Executive Chairman, The Clapham House Group PLC, commented:

"These results again show substantial growth in sales and profits for Clapham House. We are continuing to expand all our businesses at rates that are, we feel, appropriate for this stage of the UK economic cycle. Trading to date in the new financial year is satisfactory although, like many others, we are cautious regarding the UK financial outlook. We do, however, remain highly positive about the mid term prospects for our brands and the UK eating out market."

Enquiries

The Clapham House Group PLC                          0870 066 2099

David Page, Executive Chairman                              www.claphamhousegroup.com

Paul Campbell, Chief Executive                

Nick Wong, Group Finance Director            

Noble & Company Limited                                   020 7763 2200

Nick Naylor

Nick Athanas

Redleaf Communications                                       clapham@redleafpr.com

Emma Kane / Sanna Sumner / Kathryn Hurford         020 7822 0200

Notes to Editors:

• The Clapham House Group PLC gained admission to AIM in November 2003 with a strategy to build a unique restaurant group of high quality brands and to develop exciting restaurant concepts throughout the UK.

• Clapham House has built up a portfolio of four strong brands:

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (www.gbk.co.uk) - a sophisticated, highly regarded and award winning gourmet burger chain, with 44 restaurants, 26 of which are in London. GBK has recently received a nomination for 'Best Restaurant Chain' at the London Restaurant Awards 2008. 

Tootsies (www.tootsiesrestaurants.co.uk) - offering a family friendly all day menu, the first Tootsies restaurant opened in Holland Park over 35 years ago; today Tootsies has 24 locations across the UK and continues to grow.

The Bombay Bicycle Club (www.thebombaybicycleclub.com) - distinctive Indian cuisine, with 3 restaurants and 15 delivery kitchens throughout London, providing exceptional quality Indian food.

The Real Greek (www.therealgreek.com) - healthy Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, with six restaurants across London serving meze and TRG's much loved souvlaki. The Real Greek has recently received a nomination for 'Best Restaurant Chain' at the London Restaurant Awards 2008.

Chairman's Statement

It gives me great pleasure to report the unaudited preliminary results of Clapham House for the year ended 30 March 2008.

Results

During the year ended 30 March 2008, Clapham House's revenue increased 30% from £45.9m to £59.5m. This is a result of the continuing organic growth of our restaurant brands. The Group's headline EBITDA increased 52% for the year to £8.9m (2007: £5.9m). 

Headline profit before taxation increased 30% to £4.7m (2007: £3.7m). Pre-opening costs of £1.1m (£0.8m) were incurred during the year and share based payments amounted to £0.5m (2007: £0.6m).

The Group incurred non-trading charges consisting of a £0.7m write down of fixed assets at the Canary Wharf restaurant which has been converted from Tootsies to a GBK and a £0.1m charge relating to the departure of Sarah Willingham, a director of the Company, at the year end. There is also a further £1.3m charge for the impairment of property, plant and equipment, reducing the carrying values of a number of Tootsies restaurants which have traded below expectations.

The effective tax rate for the year to 30 March 2008 as a percentage of profit before taxation before share based payments and impairment charges is 26.6% (2007: 15.8%).

Statutory diluted earnings per share for the period were 0.5p (2007: 3.2p) while headline diluted earnings per share before impairment charges, restructuring costs, share based payments, deferred taxation arising on share based payments and pre-opening costs were 11.8p (2007: 9.3p).

Openings

Our restaurant opening programme has progressed well with 24 new restaurant locations added during the year. There were 21 new GBKs opened in the UK including the conversion of the Tootsies restaurant at Canary Wharf and new restaurants in Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. In addition, two GBKs were opened in international territories. 4 new BBC delivery kitchens were opened and 2 loss-making Tootsies restaurants were sold. This activity took the total number of Clapham House restaurants and delivery kitchens to 96 at 30 March 2008 (2007: 72). 

Since 30 March 2008, 2 further GBK restaurants have been opened in London's Baker Street and, under franchise, in Belfast, taking the total number of locations operated by the Company today to 98 : 50 GBK restaurants (44 UK; 6 international), 24 Tootsies and Dexters restaurants, 18 BBC restaurants and delivery kitchens and 6 The Real Greek restaurants.

We have commenced building at the GBK restaurant at London's Spitalfields development after a delay of more than one year whilst the landlord completed the premises. We have a further 9 restaurant locations signed and planned for construction later in this financial year. In addition, our franchise partners in Ireland and the Middle East have 2 GBK restaurants under construction. A Dexters restaurant is expected to open this summer at Bristol airport. This will be operated under franchise and if successful may be the first of several openings for the Tootsies/Dexters brand in UK airports.

We are pleased to observe that rental and premium prices are now becoming more realistic than they were six months ago. However, we believe that over the next year there will be further realignment in property costs and it will remain our policy not to enter into over-rented leases.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

We remain convinced of the strong and profitable expansion potential for GBK in the UK, with our latest opening at Baker Street performing very well since opening in May 2008. Our openings this year for GBK will be focused on major UK cities and high footfall developments such as Liverpool and Westfield London White City.

Internationally, we now have GBK operating in the Middle East, Turkey and Ireland. These markets are being developed under franchise arrangements at no capital cost to Clapham House. Over time, an attractive royalty stream should be produced from the GBK international business. 

Development Brands

Tootsies

A number of initiatives were launched within the Tootsies business last autumn including a new menu, an improved food offer, a broader range of classic dishes under the "Food for Everyone" banner, a new kids menu in partnership with child nutritionist Annabel Karmel and the introduction of daily specials and a fixed price menu to drive footfall and localised marketing initiatives. We are delighted that these initiatives appear to be working with sales now stabilised at Tootsies. 

The Bombay Bicycle Club

The BBC delivery model continues to offer "restaurant quality food delivered to your door" and we are pleased to report that on line ordering now amounts to more than 16% of all sales. The development of this element of trade will be a key priority this year as on line sales are usually higher than telephones sales and in due course should enable us to reduce costs at store level. 

The Real Greek

The Real Greek traded well last year with the flagship restaurant on London's South Bank and the Covent Garden restaurant performing particularly well. We have new excellent London locations at Spitalfields and White City scheduled to open in this financial year.

Costs

We remain firmly focused on recent food and energy cost inflation and will continue to seek to neutralise any adverse effects with better buying. We are reviewing all supply chain arrangements to ensure cost efficiency is maximised. In addition, we regularly review and revise our food and drink menus and will this year carefully analyse the scope and requirement for menu inflation. 

We have introduced a new management system to all our restaurants to ensure that labour costs are managed as tightly as possible.

 Promotional activity

We have launched a number of promotions across our brands including the GBK Official Love Bus tour of UK cities, a Tootsies promotion with Tesco Clubcard holders, incentives for The Bombay Bicycle Club customers to transact on line and The Real Greek Gets the Ouzo Flowing campaign at Euro 2008.

Funding

We generated a net cash inflow from operating activities of £9.2m (2007: £4.9m) and we invested £19.6m in the year (2007: £11.2m) in capital expenditure on new sites and infrastructure. 

Net debt at 30 March 2008 was £16.0m (2007: £9.5m). The Company's banking facilities are currently £21.7 million.

Impact of the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards

The financial information shown in this interim statement is presented for the first time in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and IFRIC Interpretations as adopted in the E.U. ("IFRS"). The comparative information for the year ended 1 April 2007 has been restated under these standards.

The impact on the Group's income statement for the year ended 30 March 2008 has been to reduce the UK GAAP profit before taxation for the year by £0.3m as a result of the change in treatment of lease inducements and brand amortisation. We expect a charge of £0.5m in the coming year as the full year effect of new leases are recognised. Under UK GAAP, the Group recognised rent-free periods on property leases over the period to the commencement of the first rent review. Under IFRS, lease incentives are spread over the full term of the lease.

Dividends

No final dividend is being proposed. As described in the Company's admission document dated 29 October 2003, it is the Board's policy that, subject to the availability of distributable reserves, dividends will be paid to shareholders when the Directors believe it is appropriate and prudent to do so.

Current trading and outlook

In December 2007, we made the strategic decision to reduce our opening programme for the financial year 2008/09. Whilst we are continuing to grow and expand all of our businesses we believe that this cautious approach is wise in the current economic climate.

Trading to date in the new financial year is satisfactory although, like many others, we are conscious of the UK economic outlook. We do, however, remain highly positive about the mid term market prospects for our brands and the UK eating out market.

David Page

Chairman

30 June 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Income Statement

for the year ended 30 March 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheet 

as at 30 March 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Change in Equity

for the year ended 30 March 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

for the year ended 30 March 2008