Date:                         10 December 2008

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

Embargoed until:    0700hrs

The Clapham House Group PLC

CONTINUED GROWTH IN SALES AND PROFITS

Unaudited interim results for the six months ended 28 September 2008 

The Clapham House Group PLC (AIM: CPH), owner and operator of Gourmet Burger Kitchen ("GBK"), Tootsies, and The Real Greek ("TRG"), today announces its interim results for the six months ended 28 September 2008, which show continued growth in sales and profits.

Highlights:

• Revenue increased for the six months by 21% to £30.3m (2007 restated: £25.1m) driven by continued organic growth

• EBITDA before restructuring costs increased for the six months by 26% to £3.7m (2007 restated: £3.0m)

• Profit before taxation for the six months increased by 114% to £1.5m (2007 restated: £0.7m)

• Diluted EPS increased for the six months to 2.6p (2007 restated: 1.2p)

• Diluted EPS from continuing and discontinued operations increased for the six months to 2.4p (2007 restated: 0.8p)

• Net debt at 28 September 2008 decreased to £12.1m (2007: £13.3m)

         All numbers above shown for continuing operations only, except where indicated.

Operational highlights for the 80 restaurants across the UK and 10 under franchise overseas:

• Focused expansion with 9 UK and 5 overseas openings to date this financial year

• GBK and TRG openings this year particularly strong and immediately profitable 

• Banking facilities renewed until June 2012

• Q3 trading to date satisfactory

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

"Our interim results demonstrate continuing strong organic growth of our restaurant businesses and we have again reported an increase in sales, EBITDA and profits and a further expansion of our estate. 

"It is now more than a year since we recognised that the UK economy was entering an uncertain phase and decided to rationalise our forward restaurant opening programme. We have worked hard for a year on repositioning our pipeline, managing costs and promoting sales, and feel our business is well positioned. Our openings this year have been strong and we have now completed our UK opening programme for the current financial year.  

"We have a growing and profitable business, recent trade has continued to be satisfactory, and we remain very positive about the medium-term demand trends for the UK eating out market, the quality of our formats and, in particular, the national roll out scope for GBK. We believe customers will continue to search out value and quality."

Enquiries

The Clapham House Group PLC               0870 066 2099

David Page, Executive Chairman                

Paul Campbell, Chief Executive                

Nick Wong, Group Finance Director            

Noble & Company Limited                         020 7763 2200

John Llewellyn-Lloyd

Redleaf Communications                           clapham@redleafpr.com

Emma Kane/Kathryn Hurford                    020 7566 6700

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 operates 80 restaurants across the UK and 10 under franchise overseas. It has a portfolio of three strong brands:

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (www.gbk.co.uk) - with 49 restaurants across the UK and 10 under franchise overseas, GBK offers a sophisticated, highly regarded and award winning range of gourmet burgers and an affordable price point. 

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 there are 23 Tootsies restaurants across the UK, many in high footfall locations.

The Real Greek (www.therealgreek.com) - healthy Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, with eight restaurants across London serving meze and TRG's much loved souvlaki. 

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Interim Results

for the six months ended 28 September 2008

Chairman's Statement 

Results

During the six months ended 28 September 2008, Clapham House demonstrated strong growth in revenue from continuing operations which increased to £30.3 million (2007 restated: £25.1 million) as a result of the continuing organic growth of our restaurant businesses.  The group has also recorded double digit percentage increases in headline EBITDA and EBITDA (before restructuring costs) reflecting the strong operational performance of Clapham House's three brands in a period in which our businesses have faced rising food and utility costs.

The results for the previous year have been restated for the impact of discontinued operations following the sale of CHG 2 Limited trading as The Bombay Bicycle Club during the six months. The Company's EBITDA before restructuring costs from continuing operations, increased for the six months by 26% to £3.7 million (2007 restated: £3.0 million). Headline EBITDA (as defined in note 6) increased for the six months by 14.3% to £4.3 million (2007 restated: £3.7 million). The Company's share based payment charge, a non-cash charge, has remained at £0.3 million (2007 restated: £0.3 million). Pre-opening costs have reduced for the six months to £0.3 million (2007 restated: £0.5 million) as a consequence of our current focused opening program.

Profit before taxation from continuing operations for the six months increased by 114% to £1.5 million (2007 restated: £0.7 million).

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations have increased for the six months to 2.6p (2007 restated: 1.2p) The taxation charge for the period of £0.5 million (2007: £0.3 million) is made up of 51% current tax liability and 49% deferred taxation charges which are non-cash.

Current trading and outlook

For the first half of our financial year we have again reported an increase in revenue, EBITDA and profits and a further expansion of our estate of restaurants. Recent trade has continued to be satisfactory.

We have been cautious regarding the UK economy for more than a year and continue to be so. However, having worked hard for a year on repositioning our pipeline, managing costs and promoting sales, we feel our business is well positioned. 

We have a growing and profitable business and remain very positive about the medium-term demand trends for the UK eating out market, the quality of our formats and, in particular, the national roll out scope for GBK.

Funding

We generated a net cash inflow from continuing operating activities of £4.0 million (2007: £1.8 million) from continuing operations. We invested £3.1 million in the period (2007: £10.4 million) in capital expenditure on new sites and infrastructure. As a result of the disposal of CHG 2 Limited trading as The Bombay Bicycle Club, we received £4.4 million, before disposal costs.

Events affecting the global economy have further increased LIBOR rates since October 2007. This combined with slightly higher levels of debt used to fund more GBK restaurants in the period have led to interest costs of £0.5 million (2007: £0.3 million) during the period. Net debt at 28 September 2008 was £12.1 million (2007: £13.3 million). Our covenant tests for our banking facilities continue to have significant headroom.

I am pleased to announce that we have as at 9 December 2008 renewed our main banking facilities until June 2012. As a result, we have incurred a one off arrangement fee and will be paying a small increase in margin. The same total Company facilities of £21.7 million remain in place following this renewal.

Openings

It is now more than a year since we recognised that the UK economy was entering an uncertain phase and decided to rationalise our forward restaurant opening programme. Consequently we have restricted our openings this year to those sites which we felt would give Clapham House returns on capital above the norm. I am pleased to report that our openings to date this year have been very strong, in particular the GBK openings in Baker Street, Old Spitalfields Market, Liverpool One, Bristol Cabot Circus and Westfield London. In addition, The Real Greek opening at Westfield has traded very well since its opening in October and The Real Greek at Old Spitalfields Market commenced trading last week. We have now completed our UK opening programme for the current financial year. 

We expect a number of additional overseas GBK restaurants to open under franchise before the year end. These overseas openings are wholly funded by our franchise partners in each local territory and should provide an increasing royalty stream to Clapham House. Attracted by the good returns offered by this mode of expansion, we will look to develop further overseas territories under franchise over coming years.

As at 28 September 2008 the total number of Clapham House restaurants was 83. Including those openings since the half year, the total number of locations operated by the Company today is 90: 59 GBK restaurants (49 UK; 10 international), 23 Tootsies and Dexters restaurants, and 8 TRG restaurants.

We have two UK sites committed for FY2010 and we believe this positions us well to take advantage of a rapidly softening UK property market as well as likely casualties in the independent restaurant sector. We are anticipating a similar phase to the pattern which occurred in the 1991/2 downturn where restaurant property assets acquired during that time performed strongly over the following 5 years. Overall we remain cautious on UK openings and we will be concentrating on securing strong locations where our GBK format can excel. We remain confident that the GBK format has significant development potential and will be able to be expanded to in excess of 150 sites in the UK alone.

Operations

An additional benefit from the decision to rationalise our opening programme has been the concentration of senior management effort on two key commercial issues: cost management and promotional activity.

Our focus on cost management has intensified over the past 12 months. We have reviewed all material supply chain arrangements to ensure that we are maximising efficiency whilst protecting the quality of our products. We have also introduced to good effect a new and comprehensive integrated labour management system. There are recent signs that the worst is behind us now in terms of food cost and utility inflation and we are pleased with the results to date from our efforts on the management of food and labour costs. Clapham House has always paid at least the minimum wage to all its employees (before any tips or service charge allocation) and will therefore be unaffected by the proposed changes to legislation in this area.

We have also concentrated attention this year on innovative marketing and promotional activities in order to stimulate sales during the worsening of the UK economic outlook. We are pleased with the results to date from these initiatives and intend to develop and deploy these further for the foreseeable future as, we believe, customers will continue to search out value and quality. Sales at GBK have responded particularly well to promotions which allow customers to enjoy the high quality but affordable GBK product for as little as £5 per head.

Dividends

As last year, no interim dividend is being proposed. 

David Page
Chairman
10 December 2008

The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Income Statement

for the six months ended 28 September 2008

The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheet 

as at 28 September 2008

The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

for the six months ended 28 September 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Unaudited Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

for the six months ended 28 September 2008

  The Clapham House Group PLC

Notes to the Unaudited Consolidated Interim Financial Information

for the six months ended 28 September 2008

1. General information

The Clapham House Group PLC is a company incorporated in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 1985. The address of the registered office is Suite D, 1 Lindsey Street, London, EC1A 9HP, United Kingdom. Copies of this Interim Statement may be obtained from the above address or the investor section of the Company's website at http://www.claphamhousegroup.com.

2. Basis of preparation

The unaudited interim consolidated financial information for the six months ended 28 September 2008 has been prepared under the recognition and measurement principles of International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU ("IFRS") based on the accounting policies consistent with those used in the financial statements for the year ended 30 March 2008, and those to be applied for the year ended 29 March 2009. The unaudited interim consolidated financial information was approved by the Board on 9 December 2008.

The results of the six months ended 30 September 2007 and year ended 30 March 2008 have been restated to show the impact of discontinued operations.

The interim consolidated financial information for the six months ended 28 September 2008 does not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. Statutory accounts for the year ended 30 March 2008 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The audit report on these statutory accounts was unqualified, did not contain an emphasis of matter paragraph, and did not contain a statement either under section 237(2) or 237(3) of the Companies Act 1985.

The interim consolidated financial statements are presented in Pounds Sterling because that is the currency of the primary economic environment in which the group operates. All values are rounded to the nearest thousand Pounds (£'000) except when otherwise indicated.

3. Revenue

The revenue and profit for the period are attributable to the principal activities of the group, which are carried on within the United Kingdom.

4. Pre-opening costs

Pre-opening costs represent the costs incurred up to the date of opening a new restaurant that are written off to the income statement in the period in which they are incurred. 

5 . Restructuring costs

The restructuring costs for the six months ended 28 September 2008 and six months ended 30 September 2007 represent the restructuring costs pursuant to the acquisition of Urban Dining PLC. These costs include the restructuring of the management team and the closure and transfer of restaurants for conversion.

6. Headline EBITDA

7. Income Tax Expense

8. Earnings per share

9. Cash and cash equivalents

Bank balances and money market deposits comprise cash held by the Group on a short term basis with maturity of three months or less. The carrying amount of these assets approximates their fair value.

10. Reconciliation of net cash flows from operating activities

 11. Disposals

On 16 July 2008, the Company completed the disposal of CHG 2 Limited trading as The Bombay Bicycle Club for cash consideration of £4,409,000. Accordingly The Bombay Bicycle Club has been treated as a discontinued operation. A profit of £14,000 arose on disposal, being the proceeds less the carrying value of The Bombay Bicycle Club's net assets and attributable goodwill.

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