Record revenue at Loungers as current lfl sales up 5%

09-Jul-2024 - Last updated on 09-Jul-2024 at 08:36 GMT

Good times: Loungers says current trade is strong after good results announced (Armado Lounge pictured)

All day café-bar group Loungers has reported a 5% like-for-like (lfl) sales rise since its financial year ended and stated new sites are performing “exceptionally well”.

Loungers, which operates under the Lounge, Cosy Club and Brightside brands, announced record revenue and a leap in adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for its financial year ended 21 April 2024.

The business has achieved record revenue of £353.5m, up 24.7% on the prior year while it opened a record 36 new sites opened during the year, seven sites more than in the prior year.

Lfl sales growth of 7.5% was recorded in its results with “current trading continuing to beat the market” and adjusted EBITDA of £59.6m represented year-on-year growth of 25.9%.

Meanwhile, operating profit rose 37.7% from £14.8m to £20.3m and profit before tax climbed 56% from £7.3m in 2023 to £11.4m.

Strong pipeline

On current trade, the group said: “We continue to feel very positive about the outlook for our brands and over the 11 weeks since the year end, our lfl sales have been up 5.0%.

“Our new site openings continue to perform exceptionally well, achieving record levels of sales, and our pipeline of new sites is as strong as ever.”

Loungers has opened seven sites since the year end (all of them Lounges) and said the momentum it is seeing along with the investment it continues to make in its operational management puts the business in the “best possible position” to deliver further growth and margin expansion in its 2025 financial year.

Loungers CEO Nick Collins said: “This has been another year of outstanding strategic, operational and financial progress for Loungers. Our consistent and market-leading like for like sales growth coupled with our improving margins are allowing us to achieve record levels of profits to reinvest in our ambitious roll-out programme.

“During the year, we opened 36 new sites, created 1,200 new jobs and invested around £39m in high streets and communities across the UK.”

Fix unfair tax burden

Collins continued: “We have demonstrated yet again that the hospitality sector is capable of making a really positive economic and social impact on parts of the country that are otherwise all-too-often overlooked.

“To encourage further investment, I would strongly urge the new Government to address the wildly unfair tax burden that is shouldered by our industry in the form of a business rates system that urgently needs to be overhauled.

“The variety, breadth and flexibility of our all-day offer is proving to be more relevant than ever and, last year, our wonderful teams served 7m breakfasts and poured 6m pints to an increasingly wide demographic.

“As the business grows, we are constantly evolving and improving our menus to ensure that we continue to offer our customers the great experience and fantastic value for money that they have come to expect from us.

“The improving macroeconomic environment, with falling interest rates and declining inflation, adds to our confidence in Loungers’ trading prospects for the coming year. In the longer term, we continue to believe that 665 sites is a conservative target.”