(Reuters) - Britain's Restaurant Group Plc (>> The Restaurant Group PLC), which runs the Frankie & Benny's chain, said comparable sales were up 6.5 percent so far this year and it expected the growth to continue for the rest of the year.

The company's shares touched a new life-high of 412.05 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning.

An increase in footfall in the eight weeks to February 24 and a rise in average spend drove sales growth, said the owner of popular British eatery Garfunkel's.

Comparable sales growth was better in February than in January, Chief Executive Andrew Page told Reuters.

"The spend growth divides equally between people trading up a little bit, perhaps having a pudding or a coffee, and some price increases that we were able to put through last year."

Page said he expected the food costs to keep increasing, some of which the company may pass on to customers.

Restaurant Group sales would have to grow at 4 to 5 percent this year to keep profits unchanged, primarily due to food cost inflation, Panmure analyst Simon French said in a note.

Liberum Capital analyst Patrick Coffey said in a note that he expected a gradual slowdown in comparative sales to average at around 2 percent growth for the whole year.

Restaurant Group, which runs more than 400 restaurants and pubs in the UK, plans to open 28 to 35 more outlets in 2013.

The company's 2012 adjusted pretax profit rose 7 percent to 64.6 million pounds. Revenue increased 9 percent to 533 million pounds in 2012. Excluding new restaurants, revenue grew 4.5 percent.

Burger and red-meat sales were not affected by the recent horsemeat scandal in Europe, Page said.

The FTSE-250 company's shares were trading up 4.9 percent at 408 pence at 1033 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By Richa Naidu in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

By Richa Naidu