CINCINNATI Frisch's Restaurants Inc., operator or franchisor of 118 Frisch's Big Boy restaurants and franchisee of 34 Golden Corral units, recorded a 66.9-percent surge in second-quarter profit, as increased sales and reduced food and payroll costs helped the company post record income of $2.8 million, or 54 cents per share.
In the year earlier second quarter, Frisch's earned $1.7 million, or 33 cents a share. For the quarter ended Dec. 12, Frisch's revenues rose 2 percent to $68.3 million.
Same-store sales increased 0.9 percent at the company's Big Boy restaurants and rose 0.6 percent at Golden Corral locations, snapping a string of negative same-store sales at the grill-buffet chain. For the first six months of the company's fiscal 2007, earnings increased 18.6 percent from the same period a year earlier to $5.1 million, or 98 cents per share. Revenues increased 2 percent to $156.5 million. The company said "modest improvements" in sales at its Bog Boy chain have continued into the current third quarter, helped by mild winter weather in the Midwest where its restaurants are located.
