Hamburger Hamlets’ Earnings Up 127%

Hamburger Hamlets Inc. said its profit jumped 127%, to $640,979, or 89 cents a share, in its fourth quarter ended March 30. Sales were up 8% from the same period a year earlier, to $10.7 million.

For the fiscal year ended March 30, the Sherman Oaks-based restaurant chain reported net income of $1.7 million, or $2.38 a share, up 22% from the previous year. Sales were flat, up less than 1%, to $38.9 million.

Paul Brockman, chief financial officer, attributed the improved results partly to an investment tax credit that the company received from rehabilitating its Hamlet Gardens restaurant in Westwood last year. Brockman said the 36-year-old company is in the midst of its most ambitious expansion program ever.

Hamburger Hamlets will reopen a refurbished restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in Encino late this summer. In addition, it started construction late last year on an upscale, 24-hour restaurant, Kate Mantilini’s, at Wilshire Boulevard and Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. The restaurant is scheduled to open this fall.

Hamburger Hamlets owns 24 restaurants, 19 in Southern California.