Restaurant group Ask Central is continuing to benefit from the UK's love of Italian food.

The pizza and pasta chain, which has a branch in George Street, Oxford, said trading was "particularly robust", with an initial assessment of the year to December 31, showing sales and profits would be fully in line with the company's expectations.

Ask was set up by brothers Adam and Samuel Kaye, who opened their first restaurant in London's Belsize Park in 1993. The group now operates more than 100 outlets under the brands Ask, Zizzi and iT's Cafe, employing around 2,500 people.

Ask has also enlarged its board of directors in response to the group's expansion.

Neil Blows, a partner at law firm Glovers, joins as a non-executive director while Julia Fleet, who is married to fellow non-executive director Andrew Fleet, becomes an operational executive director.

Mrs Fleet joined Ask in 1998 and is responsible for the day-to-day control of Ask restaurants in central London.

In the year to December 31 2000, Ask posted pre-tax profits of £10.4m on turnover of £61.1m.