Loungers eyes expansion plans as revenues jump 22%
Loungers has announced it is planning to increase its portfolio by 25 properties every year to around 500 sites, after it reported a 22% jump in revenues for the 24-week period ending 6 October 2019.
The company, which operates 161 café/bar/restaurants across England and Wales under two Lounge (133 sites) and Cosy Club (28 sites) brands, revealed that revenues reached £79.8m during the period, up from £65.4m.
Pre-tax losses also narrowed from £4.3m to £2.5m, in part thanks to the company increasing its profit margin from 40.6% to 41.5%, and net debt was reduced to £29.3m.
Loungers also added that it was on track to deliver 25 new site openings this financial year and going forward, with 10 new sites scheduled in H2 (eight Lounges and two Cosy Clubs), bringing the group’s total to 171.
Nick Collins, chief executive officer of Loungers, said: “I am delighted to announce another strong set of results which continue to highlight our consistent outperformance against the market.
“This will be the fifth consecutive year we have opened at least 20 new sites and we remain excited by the prospects and potential for both our Lounge and Cosy Club formats and the significant opportunity we have ahead of us.”
He added: “We have delivered sector leading like for like sales growth of 5.4% alongside a 0.4% improvement in our EBITDA margin. This has been achieved alongside opening 10 new sites in H1, delivering impressive overall sales growth of 22% and successfully listing the business on AIM.
“Looking ahead, the strength of our FY20 openings to date and the continued evolution of our offer further underpins our confidence in continuing our current growth rate of 25 new openings per year and the potential for more than 400 Lounges and 100 Cosy Clubs across the UK.”
