Byron reports £1.5m loss as turnover falls to £10.6m
The six-site burger chain's losses more than doubled in the year to December 2025, as the UK operator cited wage inflation, energy costs and the cost-of-living squeeze.
Byron posted a pre-tax loss of £1.5m for the year to 31 December 2025, more than double the £666,237 it lost the previous year, as turnover fell to £10.6m from £14.4m.
Losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation widened to £1.2m, from £0.4m in 2024. The burger chain, now down to six sites, blamed "inflation in national wages, energy costs and the cost of living crisis from 2023 to 2025" for the squeeze on its margins.
A brand rebuilt three times over
We remain focused on restoring profitability.
Byron's numbers mark the latest chapter in a decade of resets. Tom Byng sold the then 34-strong group to Hutton Collins for £100m in 2013, and the chain grew to 67 sites within five years. A 2018 restructuring closed 31 of its remaining 51 restaurants. Calveton bought what was left for £4m in 2020, and Tristar Foods acquired the chain for £856,000 in 2023, pursuing what the company calls a strategy of reviving the brand in the UK market.
Three years into that turnaround, the newest results suggest the rebuild is still some way off stable footing. Director Sumir Arora said the company had "raised further strategic funding from its shareholders and obtained financial undertaking to support the liquidity and cash flows of the business," a sign that Byron is leaning on its owners to keep trading rather than on improved sales. That backing followed a close call: Tristar filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators in September 2025, which would have marked the chain's fourth insolvency event since 2018 had the funding not arrived.
Byron said it remains "focused on restoring profitability," though the accounts give no detail on how, or by when.
Six sites against a shrinking burger market
Byron's six-site footprint is a fraction of its 2017 peak, and its losses land in a year when other UK casual dining chains have also been cutting back. Whitbread shut the last of its 106 Beefeater restaurants this autumn, part of a wider retreat from mid-market dining formats as wage and energy bills outpace menu price increases.
Not every casual brand is struggling in the same way: the Ivy Collection grew sales to £348m and nearly doubled profit over the same period, a reminder that scale and a stronger brand can cushion the same cost pressures Byron is citing.
Byron's next results, covering the 2026 financial year, will show whether the shareholder support translates into a smaller loss or another chapter in the chain's long decline from its original 34-site footprint.
