Revealing its latest financial results, the company behind 154 venues across England and Wales under its Lounge and Cosy Club brands announced a £2.3m increase in profit from £10.1m having previously revealed a 26.4% rise in revenue to £153m – versus £121.1m for the previous fiscal year.
What’s more, the operator saw like-for-like sales growth of 6.9% and £22.4m in cash generated from operations – a year-on-year increase of 13.5% from £19.8m.
Loungers’ adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose by 23.7% from £16.6m to £20.6m according to its latest figures.
Operational highlights for the 52-week period included the opening of 25 new sites – three more than the previous 12 months – taking the total number of venues in Loungers’ stable to 146 at the financial year’s end on 21 April.
As previously reported by The Morning Advertiser, Loungers boss Alex Reilley has claimed the café-bar group can compete with the likes of JD Wetherspoon, Pret and Greggs for scale, with plans to launch sites at a rate of 25 a year.
What’s more, since the end of the previous financial year, Loungers has announced the opening of a landmark 150th venue, Fosso Lounge in Wells, Somerset, to expand its portfolio to 125 Lounges and 25 Cosy Club sites.
The company also introduced an investment programme to improve kitchen efficiency and the working environment for back of house teams, developed head office infrastructure and, as reported by The Morning Advertiser, raised £83.3m by trading Loungers’ ordinary shares on the AIM – a sub market of the London Stock Exchange for smaller, growing companies.
Unwavering focus
“These results represent a strong performance for the financial year ending 21 April 2019 and are in line with both our, and the market’s, expectations,” Nick Collins, chief executive officer of Loungers said.
“Our revenue and profit growth not only reflect the continued success of the rollout, but also our unwavering focus on our customers, the evolution of our proposition and how we support and invest in our teams.
“Our admission to AIM post the FY19 year-end has meant almost 600 employees have had the opportunity to become shareholders in Loungers and it is fantastic that their hard work and commitment can be rewarded in this way.
“Our new financial year has started well and our rollout strategy for both brands is on schedule. I remain confident about the outlook and future growth prospects for the group.”
