Bar and restaurant chain Loungers will open its 158th outlet next week – as it reveals sales of £80million in just six months.
The company, which trades under the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, will open a Cosy Club venue in Plymouth’s £53million cinema complex – named The Barcode because of its black-and-white striped cladding – on Monday, October 21.
It will be the 28th Cosy Club in the Ƶ, and follows hot on the heels of the Basingstoke branch opening in early October, with another two more, in Carmarthen and Buxton, scheduled to start trading before the end of the month.
Cosy Clubs are more formal bars/restaurants offering reservations and table service and an all-day offering, typically located in city centres and large market towns.
The company said it is on track to open 25 new sites in the financial year and the pipeline remains strong.
In a trading update to the Stock Exchange for the 24 weeks ended October 6, 2019, Loungers said both its brands had traded well throughout the period, with its “relaxed home-from-home customer proposition offering great food and drink, all day, to an increasingly broad demographic” continuing to resonate with customers.
Total revenue for the period was £79.8million, representing total revenue growth of 22% over the prior year, and the firm delivered like-for-like sales growth of 5.4%.
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In the past half year the company has opened 10 new sites, comprising eight Lounges and two Cosy Clubs and expects to announce its half year results on December 4, 2019.
Nick Collins, chief executive, said: "Both Lounge and Cosy Club have continued to perform well, reflecting the growing appeal of our customer offer in the communities in which we serve.
“Our broad, value for money proposition across multiple occasions underpins the resilience of our trading and leaves us well placed to continue to outperform the market.
"We remain confident of delivering another year of positive progress for the Group and are encouraged by the performance of our new openings."
The Loungers chain was started in Bristol by three pals in 2002. When it invested £250,000 to open Plymouth’s Seco Lounge in March 2010, creating 20 jobs, it was just the chain’s 14th outlet.
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It floated in early 2019 with shareholder Lion Capital holding a 39% stake and founders Alex Reilley and Jake Bishop and other senior managers together continuing to hold 16% of the firm.
In August 2019 Loungers revealed it had seen profits jump by 23.3% to £12.4million as it snaffled premises at lower rents due to the current high street doldrums.
The company said its strategy had been to stand firm on what it calls “rental discipline”, which means a refusal to pay high rents.
