Bar and restaurant chain Loungers has said it is on track to open 30 new sites this financial year, after reporting 鈥渋ndustry-leading鈥 sales growth.
The Bristol-founded group said it had already opened 11 new sites, comprising eight Lounge cafe-bars and three Cosy Club restaurant-bars, since April, taking its total portfolio to 206.
Bosses said the business continued to 鈥渟ignificantly outperform鈥 the market in the six months to October 2, delivering a 17% rise in like-for-like sales, when compared to pre-pandemic levels during the same period in 2019.
The AIM-listed firm praised the 鈥渞elevance and resilience鈥 of its brands in the face of a 鈥渃hallenging macroeconomic backdrop鈥, as hospitality businesses feel the pinch of rising energy prices and inflated operating costs.
Chief executive Nick Collins said: 鈥淎s our strong sales performance demonstrates, neither uncertainty in respect of the wider 海角视频 economy nor consumer attitudes towards discretionary spending have to date impacted our sales.
鈥淲e are continuing to benefit from more people staying local, working from home, and supporting their community and high street, which are trends that we believe are here to stay.鈥
Loungers said it had a 鈥渟trong鈥 balance sheet, with non-property net debt of 拢9.5m, down from 拢11.9m a year earlier, which it said reflected the timing of September month end working capital cash outflows.
Last year the company opened a current record 27 new sites, as it raked in highest-ever revenue of 拢237.3m, despite some impact from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 on December trading.
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