Loungers hits 100 sites and reports 34% increase in turnover

Café, bar and restaurant group Loungers has hit 100 sites following the opening of Capo Lounge in Mansfield today (10 May).

Capo, which is the group's 82nd Lounge, has opened in a former Lloyds bank building on Stockwell Gate following a £550,000 investment. The group also has 18 Cosy Club sites across the UK.

The opening coincides with Loungers reporting that group turnover for the financial year ending 23 April 2017 increased by 34% to £91.7m (2016 financial year £68.4m) with EBITDA (excluding pre-opening costs) rising by 49.7% to £12.7m (2016 £8.5m). The group added 20 new sites in the period and has reported a like-for-sales increase of 5.3%.

Loungers was founded in Bristol in 2002 by Alex Reilley, Jake Bishop and Dave Reid. Lion Capital bought a majority stake in the chain in December 2016.

Loungers is due to add to its Cosy Club estate with an opening in Worcester in July, and further Lounges are due to open in Evesham, Southend, and Rustington in the next couple of months.

Loungers chief executive Nick Collins said: "Hitting 100 sites is an impressive landmark for the business and we are proud to have achieved this whilst at the same time having improved our conversion and posted some decent like-for-likes. Loungers is in a good place at the moment, our pipeline of secured sites now takes us well into 2018 and whilst I am mindful of the economic uncertainty in the UK, we have every reason to be optimistic about the future."

Chairman and co-founder Reilley added: "It's a monumental achievement for the business to reach 100 sites and something Jake, Dave, and I would have never considered possible when we opened our first Lounge back in 2002."

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