HOUSTON Luby’s Inc., which owns 122 cafeterias in Texas and other states, said its second-quarter profit fell 85 percent from the same quarter a year earlier on higher operating expenses and soft customer traffic.
For the quarter ended Feb. 13, net income totaled $286,000, or 1 cent per share, down from $1.9 million, or 8 cents per share, the year before.
Revenue in the latest quarter rose 0.6 percent to $72.6 million. Restaurant sales slipped to $71 million from $72.1 million a year before. The remaining revenue was garnered from Luby’s contract catering services, sales from which surged to $1.7 million in the latest quarter from $97,000 the year earlier.
Same-store sales dropped 1.6 percent. Luby’s said declines in guest traffic because of a sluggish economy were offset partially by higher menu prices and a more favorable menu mix.
The company said it planned to open five new restaurants this year. Luby’s new prototype unit, opened last August, is expected to generate annual revenue of $3.25 million in its first year, an increase of 30 percent over the average annual unit volume of the current system, the company added.
