The Caribbean restaurant group said sales dropped to £84.3m, down from £93.7m the previous year, in its full accounts for the 52 weeks to 30 March 2025. It reported a loss before tax of £10.2m, compared with a profit of £1.9m in 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA was £3.8m, compared to £9m in 2024.
During the period the group closed three loss-making sites in Bristol, Croydon and Blackburn, opened a site in Chester in October 2024, and carried out refurbishments on five of its restaurants.
In the company’s strategic report it said that competition remained fierce ‘with new entrants into the sector at an increasing rate’. It also said that supplier costs were increasing through uncertainty in the markets and that high British energy prices had impacted on its performance.
It said that the ‘headwinds’ the sector was experiencing had meant that its results this year were lower than it expected but added: “We remain ahead of our pre-pandemic sales, something many are not”.
Turtle Bay was founded by Ajith Jayawickrema in 2010, with Jayawickrema acquiring the business back from backer Piper Private Equity in May last year.
Referencing the vision he had when the business was founded, which he said was to offer ‘something different, something vibrant, Caribbean-inspired and full of life’, Jayawickrema says other operators have started copying some of what made the business special.
“In the past few years, we’ve lost a bit of what made us unique. Our teams across the business are working hard to bring back the magic touch and we as leaders are making things simpler for them so they can 100% focus on our guests,” he said.
The group, which operates 50 restaurants in the UK, said it had identified further sites for expansion.