Loungers, a leading operator of all day café/bar/restaurants across the UK under the Lounge, Cosy Club and Brightside brands, is pleased to announce its audited results for the 53 weeks ended 21 April 2024; FY24.
· Loungers achieved record revenue of £353.5m in FY42, +24.7% on FY23 and +22.2% when excluding the benefit of the 53rd week
· Industry leading LFL sales growth of 7.5%, with current trading continuing to beat the market
· Adjusted EBITDA of £59.6m representing year on year growth of 25.9%
· Operating profit up 50 basis points as a percentage of sales to 5.7%
· Cash generation from operating activities was £64.6m, representing 108% of Adjusted EBITDA
· Loungers also opened a record 36 new sites during the year, +7 on FY23
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.
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.”