Record year for Revenue at growing Loungers

Loungers, which operates the Lounge, Cosy Club and Brightside brands, enjoyed a 24.7 per cent rise in revenue for the 53 weeks to April 21 to a record £353.4 million.

The pre-tax profit figure was up 56 per cent at £11.4m for the group which has Lounges in Shrewsbury, Stafford, Telford and Wolverhampton.

A record 36 new sites opened during the year, seven sites more than 2022-2023.

The new sites each delivered consistently high sales and profits.

Over the 11 weeks since the year end, like-for-like sales have been up five per cent with new openings continuing to perform exceptionally well.

Seven new Lounges have opened in the period.

Nick Collins, chief executive 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.

"The variety, breadth and flexibility of our all-day offer is proving to be more relevant than ever, and last year our wonderful teams served 7m breakfasts and poured 6m pints to an increasingly wide demographic. As the business grows, we are constantly evolving and improving our menus to ensure that we continue to offer our customers the great experience and fantastic value for money that they have come to expect from us.

"The improving macroeconomic environment, with falling interest rates and declining inflation, adds to our confidence in Loungers' trading prospects for the coming year. In the longer term, we continue to believe that 665 sites is a conservative target."