Loungers, the operator of 139 neighbourhood, café-bar-restaurants trading under the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, today reports on record trading over the Christmas and New Year period.
For the five-week period to 6 January 2019, Loungers delivered record like-for-like sales of 11%, building on the strong like-for-like performance over Christmas 2017 and maintaining the Group’s track record of consistently outperforming the wider leisure sector. Total sales for the period were £18.3 million, which was 31% higher than the previous year (2017: £14.0 million).
The business continues to trade well in the current economic environment and Loungers’ home-from- home, relaxed customer proposition – offering great food and drink, all day, to an increasingly broad demographic – continues to resonate with customers. Trading across both brands in mature sites and more recent openings was strong, and delivered consistently good growth across the entire five-week period.
Since the beginning of its current financial year on 23 April 2018, Loungers has continued to grow with the opening of 17 new Lounges and 1 Cosy Club, bringing the total for both brands to 139 today. A further 7 openings are scheduled prior to the Group’s financial year end on 21 April 2019. With each new site creating around 30 jobs, over 750 new jobs will be created this financial year. Clio Lounge in Bangor and Navarro Lounge in Manchester are due to open later this month and new Cosy Clubs will open in Norwich in February and Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth during March.
While Loungers continues to adhere to rigorous site selection criteria, the pipeline for new sites remains strong and it envisages opening another 25 new sites in 2019 and thereafter, bringing its suburban “third space” lifestyle culture and hospitality to many new locations and communities.
Nick Collins, Chief Executive of Loungers, commented:
“I am delighted to report another period of strong trading. Both Lounge and Cosy Club delivered impressive volume-led growth against strong comparatives last year, whilst maintaining a keen focus on price and margin. As in previous years, the vast majority of our sites were closed for both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, enabling our teams to spend time with their friends and families. Huge credit must go to our teams for their amazing hard work and commitment in delivering such a fantastic result. Christmas is a demanding time of year for the hospitality sector and their willingness and determination to provide great customer experiences in the communities in which we serve underlies our success.
9 January 2019
“We are excited about the prospects for the business in 2019 and continue to see great opportunities to expand whilst maintaining our strict discipline around site economics and returns. We plan to deliver our roll-out ambition of 25 new sites per year, expanding into new regions and trading locations, bringing Loungers’ unique hospitality, culture and experience to an increasingly broad customer base.”