Loungers reports record year as sales and profits surge

Revenue at the all-day café and restaurant group grew 24.7% year-on-year to £353.5m, while adjusted EBITDA rose 25.9% to £59.6m in the 53 weeks to 21 April 2024.

The group, which was co-founded by Alex Reilley (pictured) operates the Lounge, Cosy Club, and Brightside brands has reported a rise in profit before tax of 56% to £11.4m, with operating profit also growing 37.7% to £20.3m.

In January this year Loungers hit a milestone of opening its 250th site, in Rochdale, and opened a record 36 new venues during the year, seven more than the previous year.

It says it has a strong pipeline of new sites and internal capability to maintain its current rate of expansion, and remains on target to open 665 sites across the UK.

“This has been another year of outstanding strategic, operational and financial progress for Loungers," says CEO Nick Collins.

"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.

"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.”