Fast-growing Bristol-based café-bar chain Loungers has said it expects to escape the impact of the Covid-19 Omicron variant on the all-important Christmas period as it continues to significantly outperform the market.
The group, which operates 184 neighbourhood venues across England and Wales under the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, achieved a 91% increase in sales to £102.4m during the 24 weeks ended October 3 against the same period last year.
Pre-tax profits soared from just £117,000 to £12.8m even though for 13 of the 24 weeks trading was hit by Covid-related restrictions.
The group has built it success on the model established in its early days in Bristol when it opened neighbourhood café-bars on busy suburban streets that attracted a wide variety of customers throughout the day and into the evening.
During the 24-week period it opened 11 new Lounges and one Cosy Club, adding a further four Lounges since then, taking it back to its pre-pandemic rate of opening 25 new outlets a year.
All the new venues had performed well and the group said, from a pipeline perspective, adding new outlets “had never looked so good”.
The group said since the end of the period the business had continued to consistently out-perform the sector, achieving strong like-for-like sales growth after October 3 of 23.4%.
“Whilst mindful of the news of the Omicron variant, we are optimistic looking ahead to trading over the Christmas period and beyond,” it said in comments accompanying the financial results.
“The Lounge business is very balanced seasonally, whilst Christmas trading is more important for Cosy Club and we are encouraged by the level of bookings.”
Loungers chief executive officer Nick Collins added: “Our value-for-money, all-day offer appeals to a very broad demographic, and this underpins our market-leading performance in towns and suburbs across England and Wales.
“We will open 25 sites this year as we continue to benefit from the changing dynamics of the high street and our pipeline of new sites has never looked so strong.
“Our sustained growth alongside our operational discipline are enabling us to manage and mitigate most inflationary pressure.
“As we move into the Christmas trading period any potential impact of Omicron remains to be seen, but as we look ahead to 2022, I am very optimistic with regards to our prospects and the continuing roll-out of both Lounge and Cosy Club.”
He said the broad demographic appeal of its “flexible, community-based” offer together with its unique hospitality and culture resonated now more than ever.
Other highlights during the period included a significant evolution of the Cosy Club food offer and the introduction of price banding throughout the estate.
