Ultimate acquires Living Room brand

Ultimate Leisure, the north-east nightclub and bar company headed by Mark Jones, has bought the 13-strong Living Room brand from Living Ventures in a deal worth £28m.

The move is the second major step by Ultimate in the direction of creating a more food-based business; it acquired the four-strong Bel & the Dragon gastropub business last month for £8.75m.

Utimate will pay cash for the business - the company has a £75m warchest after a share placing earlier this year.

In its most recent financial year, the Living Room chain delivered sales of £29.3m - an average of around £43,300 per site per week - and £6.05m in-site Ebitda; £465,384 per venue.

The food mix is 36% of total sales at Living Room, which was founded in 1999 by Tim Bacon and Jeremy Roberts.

Ultimate believes the chain will be able to expand to 30 sites within the next five years.

Danny Fox, who has played a central role in building Living Room, is to join Ultimate as the managing director of Living Room.

Ultimate reported that Living Room sales since the end of April are up 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. Ultimate chief executive Mark Jones said: "The Living Room is an excellent brand with a very attractive customer offer.

"This acquisition represents a major move towards meeting our strategic priorities and at a sensible price. At

the same time, the Living Room will benefit from much greater investment, particularly as we look to more than double the number of its sites in the next five years."

Ultimate is paying £2.151m per Living Room site and 4.6 times unit Ebitda.