Loungers on track to open a record number of sites
Loungers has said it expects to open a total of 34 new sites during the 2024 financial year – a record number for the group.
The café, bar, and restaurant operator opened 16 sites during the first half of the financial year across its Lounge, Cosy Club, and Brightside brands, compared to 11 openings during the same period the previous year.
The group has opened one site to date in the second half of the year, with another 17 lined up before the year end.
This comes as the group releases a trading update for the 24 weeks ending 1 October 2023, a period during which Loungers saw like-for-like sales growth of 7.7%.
Compared to the 24 weeks ending 6 October 2019 (pre-pandemic), like-for-like sales were up 25.0%.
During the period, the group delivered total revenue of £149.6m, up by 22.3% on the previous year. Loungers said that inflationary pressures are continuing to diminish in line with its expectations.
Nick Collins, CEO of Loungers, said: “I am delighted with our strong trading performance across both the mature estate and our new openings. Our consistent sales growth reflects the continued evolution of our offer and the resilience of the UK consumer and high street. We have now opened 34 sites in the past 12 months, creating around 1,000 jobs in the process, and 72 sites since the last Covid lockdown. With a great pipeline of further openings in front of us I have never felt more optimistic about our prospects.”