Revolution reports revenue rise to £140.8m

The business, which operates 69 bars, under the Revolution, Revolución de Cuba, Founders & Co and Playhouse brands, also recorded gross margin of £110.1m (FY21: £28.1m), adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) of £10.2m (FY21: minus £12m), profit before tax of £2.1m (FY21: loss of £26.3m) and net bank cash of £4.1m (FY21: minus £3.6m).

Winter trade

Group non-executive chairman Keith Edelman said: “We hope and plan for a period of exciting trading over the winter months, celebrating large parties with our corporate guests while remaining cautious of the upcoming festive period where the Government has found it necessary in the past few years to restrict trading and damage guest confidence.”

He continued: “We recognise the potential for uncertainty in guest confidence as we enter a period of economic uncertainty, characterised by recession and an inflationary environment, but are confident of the resilience of our guest base.”

He added the business has opened two new Revolution bars – in Preston and Exeter – and completed 19 refurbishments across its estate.

Exciting addition

Recently, the business made the major acquisition of the Peach Pub Company​ last month, which comprises 21 sites. Edelman said: “Peach offers an exciting addition to the group portfolio and provides a more balanced and diversified business with scale and compelling growth potential across multiple trading segments of drinks, food and accommodation.”

At the end of the reporting period, the group operated 69 bars (not including the Peach estate) with Revolution (49 sites) focused on young adults, Revolución de Cuba (18 sites), which attracts a broader age range, Founders & Co (1 site) has a friendly, daytime community feel for all ages and Playhouse (1 site) offers a competitive socialising aspect.

The group spent £8.3m on capital expenditure in FY22 and plans to refurbish up to a further 18 bars in FY23, meaning up to 57% of the like-for-like estate will have been refurbished across FY22 and FY23.