Raydan Food losses widen on pandemic slowdown

During better times: Raydan opening a restaurant in Dammam in 2016. (Supplied)

• Q1 net loss widened to SR8.9 million from SR6.7 million a year earlier
• Restaurant owner may permanently close some of its outlets

RIYADH: Raydan Food Co. reported widening losses as sales dipped and costs rose.
First-quarter net losses at the company, which owns restaurants and provides catering across the Kingdom, climbed to SR8.9 million ($2.4 million) from SR6.7 million in the year earlier period, but were an improvement on the SR33.3 million loss posted for the fourth quarter of 2020, Raydan said in a filing to the Tadawul.
Sales slipped to SR34.3 million from SR48.7 million a year ago, but were up from the previous quarter’s SR29.4 million.
Raydan attributed its year-on-year loss to lower sales because of the coronavirus pandemic, higher cost of sales and an increase in operating costs, including closing, temporarily or permanently, some of its outlets.
The auditor cast doubt on the company’s future solvency amid growing losses and liabilities that exceeded assets by SR36.9 million ($9.8 million).
It also flagged a number of issues with the latest financial results, saying the company had failed to provide an assessment of impairment of property, plant and equipment at the end of the past two quarters.
The company’s asset and liability position, its continued losses and “other matters, indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the auditor said in the Tadawul filing.