Richoux chairman tucks in

Robert Rayne, chairman of the Edwardian-style London restaurant chain operator Richoux, has gobbled up £170,000 in shares in the company.

He and his partner Benita Refson took just over 1.1m shares at 15.3p a share, taking Rayne's holding in the company to nearly 8m shares or about 12% of the company.

Rayne is also the chairman of investment group LMS Capital, which is also a shareholder in Richoux. LMS and Rayne have a combined shareholding of nearly 27%.

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The purchase comes soon after Richoux reported a move into profit in 2010 after a period of significant expansion. Pre-tax profit totalled £0.51m, from a loss of £1.52m in 2009, while revenue grew slightly from £5.02m to £5.84m.

The group currently owns 13 trading restaurants under the Richoux, Zippers and Dean's Diner brands. Zippers is described as a stylish and contemporary restaurant while Dean's has a 1960s American diner theme. The chief executive of Richoux, Salvatore Dilberto, was managing director of the ASK restaurant chain from 1994 to 2004.