The operator of 157 café-bar venues across England and Wales under its Lounge and Cosy Club concepts revealed that total revenue for the 24 weeks ended 6 October hit £79.8m – representing 22% growth on the previous year.
What’s more, the group – which floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market on 29 April – delivered like-for-like sales growth of 5.4% during the same period.
Loungers’ latest update follows the announcement of a strong trading year to 21 April during which the group’s operating profit increased by 23.3% to hit £12.4m with like-for-like sales rising by 6.9%.
Growing estate
Over the 24 weeks to 6 October, Loungers opened 10 new venues comprising eight Lounges and two Cosy Club sites growing the portfolio to 156 sites by the end of the trading period.
The group has since opened a 157th site – and 27th Cosy Club – in Basingstoke, Hampshire, with a Cosy Club earmarked for Plymouth, and Lounges scheduled for Carmarthen and Buxton before the end of October.
Loungers is on track to hit a target of 25 new sites for the financial year in keeping with plans to expand the group to around 500 sites – 100 Cosy Clubs and 400 Lounges – outlined by Alex Reilley in February.
As reported by The Morning Advertiser (MA), Loungers celebrated the opening of its landmark 150th site, Fosso Lounge in Wells, Somerset, on 12 June.
Outperforming the market
Discussing Loungers’ latest performance, chief executive officer Nick Collins explained: “Both Lounge and Cosy Club have continued to perform well, reflecting the growing appeal of our customer offer in the communities in which we serve.
“Our broad, value-for-money proposition across multiple occasions underpins the resilience of our trading and leaves us well placed to continue to outperform the market.
“We remain confident of delivering another year of positive progress for the group and are encouraged by the performance of our new openings.”
The group expects to announce its half year results on 4 December 2019.
All-day operation success
In revealing increases to revenue and like-for-like sales, Loungers becomes the latest premium, all-day operator to announce successful trading figures.
As reported by MA, Arc Inspirations – the operator of 17 bars across the north of England under concepts including Banyan Bar & Kitchen, The Box and Manahatta brands – saw profits climb by 15% to £3.7m in the year to 31 March, while the Alchemist recorded respective 19% and 7% boosts to turnover and operating profit over the same period.
These results follow CGA and Alix Partners’ reveal of a 4.1% increase in the number of premium bars and licensed cafés in the year to March 2019 as well as research by UCC Coffee finding that 48% of customers would plump for pub coffee as opposed to a high street chain if their local opened earlier.
