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The group behind the Revolution and Revolucion de Cuba brands has said "pent up demand" is helping it perform better than expected - but that it "remains cautious" over the continuing impact of Covid-19.

Manchester-headquartered Revolution Bars Group has issued an update to trading ahead of its financial year ending on July 3 in which it confirms that its "strong performance" has continued since May 17 when indoor trading was permitted and all of its bars have been able to trade.

Despite the restrictions in place, when seated capacity in its bars represented only 28% of total capacity, the group has reported that trading since that date has improved to 86% against the same period in 2019 when there were no Covid restrictions, with revenue for the year now set to be ahead of management's previous expectations.

The group also said that "following the customer reaction we have seen over the last six weeks", the board is "confident that significant further pent up demand exists and therefore further strong trading is anticipated" in the coming months.

However, the group said it remains cautious about the coming financial year as the continuing impact of Covid-19 "remains unclear" and it has called on the Government to stick to the revised Roadmap "to allow clarity for all consumer facing businesses".

The group said it now anticipates that its full year performance for the year ending July 3, 2021 will be ahead of previous management expectations with an EBITDA loss pre IFRS16 adjustments of c.£12.5m, with net bank debt significantly improved to c.£5m following this period of trading and after its recent equity raise.

Chief executive Rob Pitcher said: "As predicted we have continued to see huge pent up demand and a rapid recovery across the nation in our bars following indoors reopening.