Café-restaurant chain Loungers has announced plans to open 35 stores across the UK after bouncing back from the pandemic with record revenues for the full year.
The company, which was founded in Bristol, published its trading update for the year ending April 16 2023, recording like-for-like sales growth, up 7.4% on a one-year basis and 17.6% ahead of pre-pandemic levels on a three-year basis. Loungers said it delivered "record total revenue" for the financial year of £283.5m, up 19.5% on the previous year, which was £237.3m.
The marked growth of 11.8% in the second half of the year "partially" reflected the impact of the Omicron strain of Covid-19 in the comparative period. However, the company recorded a strong final 12 weeks of the financial year and said that the strength of its sales performance enabled it, as a business, to manage the macro-economic backdrop.
Read more: Hospitality group Loungers to launch first regional venue this summer in Hexham
As a result Loungers expects profits for the full year "to be broadly in line with market expectations".
During the last financial year the company opened 29 new sites, comprising 24 Lounges, four Cosy Clubs and its first roadside site under its new Brightside brand, taking its portfolio to a total of 222 sites at year end. Subsequent to year end, Loungers opened a further Lounge in Altrincham and has said it has plans to open a further 35 new stores in the next year.
Loungers chief executive Nick Collins commented: "We have once again delivered a truly stand-out performance over the year. Our sales have been exceptional with the mature estate trading 18% ahead of pre-pandemic levels and 7% ahead of what was a really strong performance last year. We have progressed well with our accelerated site roll-out programme, opening 29 sites during the year which as a cohort are trading well above average.
"The property market continues to work in our favour and our pipeline of around 35 sites for FY24 is incredibly exciting with nine openings planned for the first quarter. The first site of our new roadside concept, Brightside, has opened well, and we look forward to opening the next two Brightside sites in the summer.
"For almost a decade now we have consistently out-performed the market as we strive to deliver better for our customers and our teams. The inflationary pressure across our supply chain looks to be easing, and our scale and continued growth have allowed us to mitigate much of the impact. We look forward to continued strong performance as we enter FY24."
Loungers expects to update the market next on July 12 2023 when it announces its preliminary results for the year ended April 16 2023.
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