Ultimate Leisure heads for Belfast
The late-night bar and club operator Ultimate Leisure is making its first foray overseas with a 2am-licenced bar in Belfast.
The 16,000 sq ft bar, opening in January, is part of the City's Odyssey leisure complex that is already home to an ice rink, exhibition centre, six-screen cinema, a nightclub and an array of restaurants.
"There is a huge thirst for normality over there," said managing director Bob Senior. "I think it will shock us all and be our most profitable venue."
The north-east operator signed a 25-year lease earlier this week. It also unveiled a full-year profits jump of 22 per cent to £5.2m on sales up 24 per cent, to £20.6m.
During the past year Ultimate has paved the way for rapid £20m expansion programme that will see the business double by 2004, funded by cash generation and an £11m bank facility.
It will focus large-scale destination clubs with annual sales in excess of £2m.
The company has increased its footprint beyond its Newcastle and Whitley Bay heartland with venues in Durham, Leeds, Nottingham, and neighbouring Sunderland.
The success of the 1,300 capacity "Beach" nightclub in Sunderland led Ultimate to seek further sites and a second Beach opened in Rotherham last month.
The Aim-listed business won the first late night licence ever to be granted on the 100-year-old Bigg Market drinking circuit. The group will open a similarly styled beach club named Blubambu.
Ultimate Leisure was formed in 1997 with five freeholds and a leasehold. It listed on Aim (Alternative Investment Market) in 1999, raising £6m.
