Hollywood Bowl aims for 130 venues in the next decade
Hollywood Bowl has said it is “well positioned” to grow its global estate to over 130 venues over the next ten years.
The bowling concept operator said its new centre pipeline in the UK has six sites already signed with more in heads of terms and legal stages.
The group – which operates over 70 sites in the UK – is currently on-site at new centres in Westwood Cross in Kent and at the Northern Gateway leisure complex in Colchester.
Hollywood Bowl said it remains confident in its ability to deliver on its plan of opening at least three new openings a year.
This comes as the operator releases its results for the first half of the 2024 financial year, a period during which it added one new site to its estate in Lincoln, following the conversion of a previously-owned family business.
Post-period end, the operator has also opened a new venue in Dundee.
Hollywood Bowl also continued its refurbishment programme, completing three projects. The group is currently on-site refurbishing its venues at London’s The O2 and at Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays, and said it will complete at least two more refurbishments in the second half of the year.
During the half year period, which covered the six months ending 31 March, the operator recorded a revenue of £119.2m, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%. Group pre-tax adjusted profit was £30.9m, up 11.7% against the same period last year.
Stephen Burns, Hollywood Bowl chief executive officer, said: “We are pleased to have welcomed so many families, friends and colleagues to our centres in the first half, demonstrating the continued demand for high-quality, family-friendly leisure experiences at affordable prices, particularly against the backdrop of higher living expenses. I am extremely grateful to our excellent team members whose hard work has resulted in even longer customer dwell times and higher satisfaction score. We are proud to invest in our team and to once again be recognised as a top company to work for.
“We continue to expect further, modest like-for-like growth, even with the very strong prior year comparative, as a result of our customer-led innovation and investment in our profitable growth strategy. We are confident in the outlook for Hollywood Bowl and in our ability to capture the longer-term opportunity to grow our estate to over 130 centres in the next ten years.”