Benihana on Wednesday released its fourth quarter and fiscal 2009 results.
For the fourth quarter of 2009, the Miami company's same restaurant sales were down 10.4 percent overall. Among its three brands, Benihana teppanyaki's same restaurants sales fell 12.2 percent, RA Sushi's fell 1.2 percent and Haru's fell 12.6 percent.
However, total restaurant sales increased 5.4 percent to USD 73.4 million (EUR 55.5 million), up from USD 69.8 million (EUR 52.8 million) in 2008.
"Our fiscal year 2009 restaurant sales were in line with prior expectations, and we are encouraged that our quarterly company-wide comparable sales were slightly higher on a sequential basis, with notable improvement at RA Sushi," said Benihana CEO Richard Stockinger. "While it would be premature to suggest that a full economic recovery is imminent, we believe that overall guest counts are beginning to stabilize, and are more hopeful that trends could improve from these levels as we move into fiscal year 2010."
During the fourth quarter, the company continued to open restaurants, including two Benihana locations and a franchise location in Chile. During the first quarter of 2010, the company plans to open three RA Sushi units and one Benihana unit.
Benihana operates 95 restaurants nationwide, including 64 Benihana teppanyaki restaurants, 22 RA Sushi bars and nine Haru sushi restaurants. The company also has 21 franchised Benihana locations in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.
