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| Hospitality Today | Aug / Sept 2016
The Arena Summer
Event 2016
Steve Richards , CEO of Casual Dining Group
Steve Richards , the CEO of Casual Dining Group , took to the stage at the Mandarin oriental Hyde Park to address hospitality and foodservice professionals for Arena ’ s Summer Event .
Over the course of approximately 20 minutes , Roberts took the audience on the journey that transformed the Tragus of 2014 into the successful Casual Dining Group business of today – one of the fastest growing restaurant businesses in the UK , that has more than doubled its profit in two years and created over 5,000 new jobs .
It is the fourth largest restaurant business in the UK , with 301 sites , and Richards stated he thought there was room for 650 . They serve 11,000 Carbonaras , and 8,000 Lasagnes , every week .
In 2014 , the decision to take control of Tragus was made . Described as ‘ a business well known for going backward ’, Richards saw a good business with a poor profit sheet that had real potential . It possessed well-known , good ( albeit tired ) brands such as Bella Italia and Café Rouge , and 192 cracking sites , and this was to be the basis of Casual Dining Group .
The first year of acquisition was all about creating the Casual Dining Group business . In a nutshell , the business was ‘ shrank down , re-focused and re-invested ’.
This involved selling off the Strada chain , as Richards didn ’ t want a “ sub-scale pizza brand that only seemed to work in London ” in the portfolio ; putting in place strong teams to embark upon a rejuvenation programme for the tired brands , and devolving the brands to operate autonomously .