THE co-owner of Scotland's largest independent restaurant chain, Di Maggio's, has highlighted a "great run" of trading as the company launches its long-awaited Anchor Line bar and grill in Glasgow.
Mario Gizzi flagged buoyant trade in the company's restaurants in Glasgow city centre during the recent Commonwealth Games, and cited his belief that economic conditions were significantly better than two years ago.
He is projecting that the company's turnover will come in at about £25 million in the year to April 2015.
The latest available accounts for Di Maggio's show that it had a turnover of £23.1m in the year to April 2013.
The Anchor Line bar and grill, which has been created with the £1.5m refurbishment of a building on the city's St Vincent Place in which first-class passengers booked voyages to destinations including New York, India, and Pakistan in days gone by, has a nautical theme and the capacity for about 200 diners.
It opened its doors on Thursday, and its specialities include steak, seafood and shellfish.
The Anchor Line bar and grill employs about 60 people, taking the workforce of Di Maggio's to around 650.
It is the 15th restaurant in the Di Maggio's empire. The company has seven Di Maggio's-branded restaurants in the west of Scotland, specialising in Italian-American dining, and three eateries under the Amarone banner, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
It also has three Cafe Andaluz Spanish tapas restaurants, two in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh, and the Barolo Grill in Glasgow.
As well as these restaurants, Di Maggio's has five outlets in shopping centre food courts, two in Glasgow, and others in Aberdeen, Belfast and Manchester. It has plans to reopen a food court outlet at Braehead in Renfrewshire.
Mr Gizzi, who runs Di Maggio's with business partner and co-owner Tony Conetta, highlighted plans to create another restaurant in the basement of the former Anchor shipping line building. He said this could, by virtue of the architecture of the basement of the listed building, be an "industrial-type" concept.
He said that this basement restaurant would add about a further 20 to 30 jobs, and added that it could be either sympathetic to the theme of The Anchor Line or totally different.
This basement restaurant would probably accommodate about 100 to 120 diners, company co-founder Mr Gizzi noted. The Anchor Line restaurant features the original black-and-white marble floor of the booking office and ornate cornicing, both of which have been painstakingly restored.
It also offers its own Anchor Line lager, brewed by Belhaven, and its walls are adorned with copies of old posters advertising voyages and menus from the shipping line.
As he unveiled his new restaurant and outlined his plans for the basement, Mr Gizzi also highlighted an appetite for further expansion of the Di Maggio's business, in which Tony's father, co-founder Joe, also owns a stake.
Mr Gizzi said: "We are still looking for opportunities in principal towns and cities in Scotland and northern England."
Plans for The Anchor Line restaurant were first revealed by Di Maggio's in January 2010.
Mr Gizzi noted he and his business partner had purchased the ground floor and basement of the former Anchor Line building back in December 2006.
He highlighted problems which they had faced with water coming into their part of the building, from above. He said there had been flooding when a developer next door refilled a water tank, which burst. The Anchor Building was constructed in 1906 as the headquarters of the Anchor Line. The Glasgow to Bombay route of the Anchor Line was one of the longest-running in Scottish shipping history, starting in 1870 and continuing until 1977.
Asked for his view of economic conditions, Mr Gizzi replied: "There is definitely a better feeling than there was two years ago."
Commenting on current trading, Mr Gizzi added: "We have had a great run, especially this summer. The Commonwealth Games were great for the city."
The Games uplift was felt in Di Maggio's restaurants in the centre of Glasgow, as opposed to those on the outskirts of the city.
Mr Gizzi said: "Everyone was coming in from different venues, into the city [for a] bite to eat, then out to a different venue.
"It was the perfect demographic for us. It was mum, dad and two kids. It wasn't about a football [crowd]. It wasn't about people getting drunk. I think the city was at its best."
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