Press release

Flo Group buys three Côte à Côte restaurants
Hippopotamus moves into a new stage of growth

Paris, 31 March 2005

The Flo Group is buying three Côte à Côte restaurants in northern Paris for its Hippopotamus trade name.

Now the Group has got back onto the path of growth, with annual turnover up by 8.5% for a comparable consolidation scope, this operation is part of an active strategy to redeploy Hippopotamus, thereby taking up an active policy to increase the density of its network across the country.

The three restaurants are the biggest of the 35 Côte à Côte restaurants owned by the Société du Dule and are located in Villepinte, Roissy and Eragny (95 département), near heavy traffic office areas and shopping centres.

The restaurants are to be reformatted in keeping with Hippopotamus' visual identity and will serve as laboratories to measure the pertinence of a new restaurant module.  With an initial investment on average 40% lower than the amount usually mobilised for Hippopotamus restaurants, this new format makes it possible to halve the profitability threshold.

This new direction for development should encourage a speedy boost in franchise policy by making restaurants much more accessible for future franchisees and also by allowing the Group itself to develop restaurants in specific geographical areas, complementing the traditional format.

If the results are conclusive, it is the Flo Group's ambition to deploy this new model following a deliberate scheme for opening 10 restaurants per year once the schedule is up and running.

The Group also points out that it is continuing to develop its traditional format, with the opening of two new Hippopotamus restaurants under franchise, in Shanghai and Algiers, in April 2005, and two openings in Paris and the Paris region before the end of 2005.