A Scottish restaurant group is defying gloom around the hospitality sector by announcing plans for expansion at home and overseas.

CEO and founder of Sixco, Nico Simeone, says the company, trading as Six by Nico, will deliver a “significant expansion” in the next 12 months, with four UK openings, as well as bar and bakery ventures.

After recovering strongly from the Covid restrictions, he also plans to build on existing operations overseas by expanding into Dubai.

The Glasgow-based group, which serves more than 10,000 diners per week across 13 sites in the UK and Ireland, recorded turnover of £30.8m for the year to June 2022, against £18.1m for the prior 15-month period to June 2021.  

Operating profits from continuing operations jumped to £4.4m to June 2022, against a loss of £600,000 in the previous period. EBITDA from continuing operations was £5m, compared to a loss of £0.1m.

The group and its staff also raised over £300,000 for Sixco’s charity partner, Beatson Cancer Charity during this period, largely through the Beat6 not-for-profit restaurant in Glasgow. 

During the 12 months to June 2022, the company invested £3.9m in new Six by Nico sites in Aberdeen, Canary Wharf (London) and Dublin as well as Tan&ns, a wine importer that supplies all the group’s ‘wet’ requirements.  

An £11.5m funding facility was agreed with challenger bank ThinCats to support Sixco’s ambitious expansion strategy. 

Mr Simeone said: “While Covid was a huge challenge, we’ve bounced back very strongly, thanks to our amazingly loyal customer base who stayed with us through the lockdowns and have returned to our restaurants in phenomenal numbers.  

“That’s down to our dedicated and hard-working team who have been absolutely brilliant – delivering consistent creativity and fun experiences day-in, day-out.” 

Group chairman, Rob Wirszycz said: “Nico’s genius in coming up with the concept of fixed-price, six-course tasting menus that change every six weeks has struck a resounding chord with the dining public.  

“Crucially, thanks to our core strategy of building customer loyalty, we emerged strongly from the pandemic and now have a fast-expanding database of more than 550,000 engaged and active customers, all literally hungry for the experiences we deliver. 

“Our headcount has expanded to over 500 colleagues, despite the well-known challenges the industry has faced in recruitment and retention, and our employee benefits are highly competitive. 

“The plans we have developed to extend our network and broaden our offering in the UK and overseas are enormously exciting.

“We’ve done our homework and are confident we’ll continue to deliver on our ethos of bringing incredible value for money and great food and drink experiences, that we believe gives us a level of resilience at a tough time for the sector more generally.”