Growing North East leisure company Apartment Group has seen sales rise on the back of students flocking to its city centre venues.
The Newcastle-based business owns and operates a string of leisure venues across the North East including city centre bars and restaurants, and rural and coastal holiday cottages and wedding venues.
Its portfolio includes Newcastle bars and nightspots Howlers, ChachaBuchi, the social club – the revamped sites launched following the closure of Florita's, Madame Koo’s and House of Smith – and Jesmond venues As You Like It and The Holy Hobo. In Northumberland it has hotel and wedding venue Newton Hall, with its recently-opened garden rooms and adjoining pub The Joiners Arms in Newton, Le Petit Chateau wedding venue and William De Percy Inn.
Recent years have seen the group make heavy investments into other wedding venues including Whitworth Hall and Runa in County Durham, and newest additions The Croft, in North Yorkshire, Lartington Hall, near Barnard Castle, and Grand Villa Heights near Scarborough. Accounts have now been published for the group’s bar and nightclub operations covering the year ended July 2024, showing turnover rose 25.5% to £2.5m, while Ebitda increased from £161,81 to £1.6m. The previous year’s operating loss of £268,191 was converted to profit of £1.2m.
In a report within the accounts, director Duncan Fisher highlights a re-positioning of its venues, which have seen growth since the year end. The report says: “Venues performed in line with expectations with the repositioning of Social Bar and Social Club last year continuing to contribute strongly to trading, resulting in the venue remaining as the premier offer on the Newcastle night time scene.
“The venues enhanced its offer across all day parts appealing to a wider audience with the student population remaining strong supporters of the offerings available. The director considers the company’s financial performance and position to be satisfactory in the light of current trading conditions.
“2024/25 is already showing significant growth on 2023/24 as the venues increase the number of the events offered to customers.”
Meanwhile separate accounts for its Northumberland venues Newton Hall and Le Petit Chateau, and their bars and restaurants, caravan sites and holiday cottages, showed revenue rose 7% to £14.5m, while operating profit fell from £2.22m to £1.73m. Employee numbers rose from 199 to 238 in the year, and the accounts show net assets have increased to £11.5m from £10.7m.The company invested £459,498 in the sites over the year.
The accounts add: “A strong focus on a consistent pipeline through wedding sales coupled with management’s ability to manage costs across the estate enabled the business to show growth in a competitive market. Strategically concentrating on wedding quality, offering, spend and volumes resulted in a strong performance from our core business offering. Continual investment in the assets to improve the hospitality offering resulted in an increased profit.”
