Japanese restaurant concept Kura Sushi US has reported a net income of $2.92m for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, a surge of 53% compared to $1.91m a year ago.

For the quarter, which ended 31 August 2023, the company’s total sales were $54.93m, up by 30.7% compared to $41.99m a year earlier.

Food and beverage costs as a percentage of sales were 29.5% in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to 30.7% in the year-ago period. The company attributed the drop to higher menu prices.

Labour and related costs as a percentage of sales in the quarter was 28.8%, almost flat compared to the same period a year ago.

Comparable restaurant sales rose by 6.5% in comparison to the fourth quarter of last year.

Kura Sushi US’ operating income for the quarter was $2.2m compared to $1.9m in the corresponding period of last year.

The company said its adjusted EBITDA for the period was $6.3m compared to $4.8m in the fourth quarter of last year.

During the quarter, the company opened four new restaurants in Framingham, Massachusetts; Carle Place, New York; San Jose, California; and Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Kura Sushi president and CEO Hajime Uba said: “I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve closed another record-breaking year with a great fiscal fourth quarter. In Q4, we achieved comparable sales growth of 6.5% against one of our hardest comparisons yet.

“Traffic growth has continued to be a highlight for Kura Sushi, with 5.6% of our comparable sales growth being driven by increased guest traffic. We also opened four new restaurants during the quarter.

“Over the course of fiscal 2023, we achieved our three major goals by opening a record ten new units, improving our restaurant-level operating profit margins by 70 basis points and leveraging our general and administrative expenses by 80 basis points.”