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Big Mamma cites social media buzz as reason for strong profits
Big Mamma, the France-based restaurant group known for its Instagram-friendly Italian-inspired restaurants, has reported that its UK turnover increased to £40 million last year.
Having announced recently that it would be expanding its UK footprint with the opening of a new restaurant in Birmingham, Big Mamma Group has now revealed that social media zeitgeist around its eateries has played a role in its impressive financial performance in the year to 31 December 2023.
According to the results, turnover almost doubled from around £26m in 2022 to £40m in 2023, with pre-tax profits of £3.7m 10 times greater than the £359,000 recorded for 2022.
Gross profit margins rose slightly from 67.3% in 2022 to 72% in 2023.
Apparently, its London restaurants, which include Gloria, Circolo Popolare, Ave Mario, Jacuzzi and Carlotta, were “fully booked one month in advance” throughout the entirety of last year, with the company suggesting that the inundation of reservations was a consequence of “strong brand presence on social media”.
The UK Instagram account for Big Mamma Group has some 299,000 Instagram followers. If one looks at what might be considered some of its closest competitors, the Caprice Holdings-owned Sexy Fish and Bacchanalia, these have 176,000 and 266,000 followers respectively.
The Big Mamma UK feed is largely dominated by gratuitous short videos of dishes with sauces being drizzled, pasta being twirled and mousses being spooned.
It has also been reported that, as well as the confirmed opening of La Belleza in what was once a Vinoteca in Birmingham, Big Mamma Group plans to further expand its presence this side of the English Channel, opening sites in Canary Wharf and Manchester soon.
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