Landry’s doubles 1Q profit, sales struggleLandry’s doubles 1Q profit, sales struggle

Ron Ruggless

Landry’s Restaurants Inc., the gaming, restaurant and hospitality company, said Monday its first-quarter profit doubled on beneficial one-time items even as sales continued to suffer.

Landry’s reported net income of $14.3 million, or 87 cents a share, for the quarter ended March 31, compared with earnings of $7.1 million, or 37 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Income from continuing operations, which excludes gains of debt repurchases and insurance proceeds, totaled $14.6 million in the latest quarter, compared with $7.4 million reported last year.

Revenue in the latest quarter rose less than 1 percent to $258.7 million. Same-store sales at Landry’s restaurants, which include Landry’s Seafood House, Rainforest Café, Chart House and Saltgrass Steak House, fell 2 percent in the quarter. Total revenue at Landry’s restaurant and hospitality properties fell to $199.2 million from $200.3 million in same quarter last year.

Rick Liem, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Landry’s, said in a statement that “Operating margins in the restaurant and hospitality group suffered somewhat from higher marketing and promotion spend in the face of improving but still negative same-store sales for the quarter.”

Landry’s Golden Nugget casino hotels in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., reported revenues of $59.5 million for the quarter, compared with $56 million in the year-ago quarter. Late last year, the company opened a new 500-room hotel tower expansion at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

“Results from the gaming operations,” Liem said, “reflect higher traffic from the new tower offset by continued competitive pressure, particularly on room rates.”

This quarter did not included results from Landry’s purchase in late April of the 12-unit Oceanaire Seafood Room chain, which it acquired in a bankruptcy auction.

Also in late April, Tilman J. Fertitta, chairman of Landry’s, upped his buyout offer for Landry’s from $14.75 per share to $21 per share in his several-years effort to take the company private.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].