Prism makes £300k loss

Prism, the 120-seat restaurant in the City of London owned by department store Harvey Nichols, made a £300,000 loss in the year to 1 April.

The company said that £200,000 of the loss related to pre-opening costs. The restaurant opened in April last year.

In contrast, the company's other stand-alone London restaurant, the 135-seat Oxo Tower, performed well. It made an operating profit of £1.06m, up from £886,000 the year before.

Turnover at the two restaurants reached £11.6m in the year to April. The year before, the Oxo Tower alone turned over £8.8m.

Harvey Nichols finance director Clive Morton said: "In the first 10 weeks of this year, like-for-like turnover is 9% up at Prism, and we are confident it will make a profit this year."

The retailer also runs the Fifth Floor restaurant, a Yo! Sushi and a Wagamama restaurant at its flagship London Knightsbridge store, and the Fourth Floor restaurant at its Leeds store. It is planning to open stores in Edinburgh in 2002 and Manchester in 2003, both with restaurants.