Nightcap, which has brought its late-night businesses The Cocktail Club, Adventure Bar Group and Barrio together as a single group, gave the positive trading update for the first half of its 2023 financial year.
It reported unaudited group revenue was £12.9m for the 13-week period (Q2 FY2023), resulting in a 60.9% increase compared to group revenue of £8m for the same period in FY2022 and a 4.7% like-for-like increase compared to the same period in FY2022.
Revenue for December 2022 was £5.9m, resulting in a 71.8% increase compared to revenue of £3.4m for December 2021 and a like-for-like increase of 27.6%.
Rail strikes cited
For the 26 weeks ended 1 January 2023 (H1 FY2023), unaudited group revenue was £23.2m, which was a 49.2% increase versus £15.6m for the equivalent period a year before. Meanwhile, revenue for this 26-week period represented a 5.8% like-for-like decrease compared to the equivalent period for FY2021. This decrease was said to be primarily due to rail strikes in the period but did represent a 10.1% like-for-like sales increase compared to FY2019.
Nightcap has opened six sites across three of its key brands, taking its total number of bars to 36 in the first half of its current financial year, including two The Cocktail Club bars (Birmingham and Canary Wharf), two Tonight Josephine venues (Bristol and Liverpool) and two Barrio openings (Covent Garden and Watford).
It closed The Cocktail Club’s site in Bethnal Green, London, via a creditors’ voluntary liquidation process.
The group’s cash position (including cash in transit) as of 1 January 2023 was £5.5m while it had total bank debt of £9.6m, resulting in a net debt position of £4.1m. £750,000 of the bank debt is scheduled for repayment during FY2023.
Phenomenal openings
Nightcap chief executive officer Sarah Willingham said: “As we approach our second anniversary since our IPO, I could not be prouder of the entire Nightcap team. To achieve quarterly growth of 60.9% in revenue and 4.7% growth on a like-for-like basis represents a monumental effort, not least during a time when rail unions deliberately chose a number of the biggest most important weeks and weekends for hospitality, for their series of significant rail strikes, including the incredibly important Christmas weeks.
“During the first half of our current financial year we also successfully opened another six phenomenal bars across the country, while also delivering record breaking amounts of corporate Christmas parties and a New Year’s Eve that was sold out across most of our 36 sites.
“This result is a testament to the resilience of our high disposable income Millennial and Gen Z customers, who continue to enjoy social interactions in a fun party atmosphere in our bars across the country.”
