Loungers enjoys busiest-ever month in December
South-west-based restaurant/café/bar group Loungers enjoyed its busiest-ever month in December 2011, with net sales for the month up 49.4% on 12 months ago to almost £1.6m.
Meanwhile, like-for-like sales at the group, which owns the Loungers and Cosy Club brands, were up by more than 6%.
The week commencing 12 December was Loungers' busiest-ever week, although pound-for-pound the week commencing 19 December was busier - but because bars were closed on Christmas Day the weekly total fell short of the total from the previous week.
The company said sales between Christmas and New Year were also "very strong", thanks to the suburban location bias of the business.
The three busiest units in the group were the three Cosy Clubs, where Christmas party bookings came into play. Cosy Club Bath was the best performer, with net sales of £196,600, followed by Cosy Club Stamford, with net sales of £152,800.
"In addition to positive like-for-like sales our year-on-year growth was driven by four new openings since December 2010," Loungers managing director Alex Reilley said. "However, we only traded with 25% more units than in December 2010 so to post year-on-year growth close to 50% is extremely pleasing and is an indication of the trading step-change brought about by the Cosy Club concept".
Loungers is set to open eight sites in 2012 and its 21st site, Conto Lounge in Winton, Bournemouth, opens on 25 January.
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By Neil Gerrard
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