Loungers: Property availability has “never been better”
The chair of Loungers has said that property availability has “never been better”, as the bar and restaurant group achieves a record year of openings.
Alex Reilley said the “well-documented” struggles of the UK high street have allowed the group to negotiate favourable terms.
He added that bank closures are also providing “excellent prime pitch locations” in towns and suburbs nationwide, with openings in Nantwich, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and Yeovil all examples of this.
This comes as the group – which operates 244 venues across the Lounge, Cosy Club, and Brightside brands – releases its results for the 2024 financial year, during which it opened a record 36 new sites.
This also contributed to a record high revenue of £353.5m and an operating profit of £20.3m during the period, which comprised the 53 weeks ending 21 April.
Since the year end, the group has opened six Lounges and acquired the Pitcher and Piano sites in Bristol and Sheffield, which are being converted into Lounge and Cosy Club venues respectively.
Nick Collins, chief executive officer of Loungers, said: “This has been another year of outstanding strategic, operational and financial progress for Loungers. Our consistent and market-leading like for like sales growth coupled with our improving margins are allowing us to achieve record levels of profits to reinvest in our ambitious roll-out programme.
“During the year, we opened 36 new sites, created 1,200 new jobs and invested around £39m in high streets and communities across the UK. We have demonstrated yet again that the hospitality sector is capable of making a really positive economic and social impact on parts of the country that are otherwise all-too-often overlooked. To encourage further investment, I would strongly urge the new government to address the wildly unfair tax burden that is shouldered by our industry in the form of a business rates system that urgently needs to be overhauled.”
He added that in the longer term, Loungers believes that a total of 665 sites is a “conservative target”.