Arc Inspirations ‘smashes all records’ with Christmas sales
The operator of more than a dozen bars across the north of England, including the Banyan Bar & Kitchen, Box and Manahatta brands said it saw a 6% like-for-like sales growth for December 2019.
It highlighted several venues that performed particularly well, with its three Manchester bars together seeing like-for-like growth of 12%.
Its Manahatta bar in Deansgate, Manchester, was the highest earning individual site with net sales of £145,000 for the week ending 15 December 2019.
The group experienced its biggest ever trading day on Saturday 14 December in addition to increasing sales by 11% on New Year’s Eve.
It achieved net sales of more than £1m for the two consecutive weeks leading up to 22 December.
The group also saw pre-booked sales take up a larger proportion of its total turnover, up to 31% from 24% the previous year.
Memorable experiences
Arc Inspirations chief executive Martin Wolstencroft said the results had given the company momentum for the year ahead.
He said: “This success shows our differentiated proposition is clearly attractive to customers seeking memorable experiences and underlines the opportunity for the business to continue opening sites in carefully selected locations in regional cities.
“Our focus on premium products, maintaining high margins and growing pre-booked sales through targeted sales and digital activity has led to this impressive performance.
“To register our two biggest ever sales weeks in the company’s history is an outstanding achievement and once again testament to our fantastic, committed, hard-working teams in all our bars.”
Wolstencroft described the past year as “the most successful year in the company’s history” when he announced Arc Inspirations’ profits had reached £3.7m this autumn.
The group has plans to open more premium sites in the north of England and the Midlands, citing its tactic of having clusters of venues in the same locations as a key to its success.
