Loungers restarts roll-out after post-lockdown bounce
Loungers has announced it plans to restart its roll-out plans after a successful post-lockdown reopening of its sites, citing the results have ‘‘strengthened” its belief in the scalability.
The hospitality operator revealed like-by-like sales increased by 30% over the past 10 weeks across both its Lounges and Cosy Club brands.
Revenue has increased by 8.8% year-on-year to £166.5m during the 12 months leading up 19 April 2020 and the company opened 21 sites during this time.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew by 0.8% to £28.7m.
Nick Collins, chief executive officer of Loungers said: ‘‘I am delighted with the strength of our performance since reopening which highlights how strategically well-positioned we are in both Lounge and Cosy Club.
‘‘During lockdown we were confident the flexibility of our all-day offer, our suburban and market-town locations and our focus on hospitality and community would ensure we emerged strongly.’’
He added: ‘‘We anticipate further interruption to trade on either a local or regional basis in the short-term and have the balance sheet and liquidity to withstand significant further Covid impacts. Covid has, however, strengthened our belief in the potential scale of both brands in the longer-term and the behavioural shifts being witnessed further underline this.
‘‘In the second half of the year we will cautiously restart the roll-out and we are excited about the property opportunities available to us and getting back to opening 25 sites a year in due course.’’