Pizza and pasta restaurant owner ASK Central has announced record results for 2002.

The company, which operates 145 restaurants throughout the UK under the ASK and Zizzi brand names, reported pretax profits up 22.8 per cent from £13.6m to £16.7m on group turnover up 21.5 per cent from £78.9m to £95.8m.

Group operating margin improved from 17.3 per cent to 17.4 per cent and the final dividend rose by 33.3 per cent to 0.5 per share.

Asked if the results were in line with the expectations expressed in the company's Christmas Trading Statement, finance director, Martin Eckersley, said: 'If anything, they exceeded them.'

Despite 2002 being a difficult year generally for high street traders, the group said that sales held up well, with limited setbacks in London due to a drop in visitor numbers and the current state of the financial markets 'more than offset by improved trading across those of our restaurants open for the same period in 2001'.

Chair George Cracknell said the results were achieved despite a significant number of the group's sites having been operating for less than a year.

Adam Kaye, chief executive, said the company's policy of opening new restaurants in restored listed buildings or buildings of local interest helped to project an image of an independent, rather than national, brand and felt that this contributed to their success.

Encouraging trading has also been reported for the first nine weeks of 2003.

The company opened twenty restaurants in 2002 - ten each under the ASK and Zizzi names at approximately £535,000 per site - the expansion being funded entirely from its own resources. New locations included Welwyn Garden City, Newcastle, Norwich, Orpington, Warwick, Camberley and Leith in Edinburgh.

Another 25-30 new sites are scheduled to open this year, the first five - in Leamington Spa, Northampton, Glasgow and Highgate Village and the Fulham Road in London - in April.

A similar number of new openings are planned for 2004 but ASK Central says it has no plans for expansion overseas.

The company won a number of awards during the past year, including Best food and beverage operator from Property Week and the Best Design category for its Zizzi restaurants in the Retailers Retailer of the Year Award. Details: www.askcentral.co.uk