Cosy Club owner serves up £10m revenue increase for 2020

A hospitality group has today reported that its revenue increased by more than £10m in the financial year ending in April.

Loungers, which owns national chains Cosy Club and Lounge, announced that revenues in 2020 totalled £166.5m, up 8.8 per cent from last year’s £152.99m.

The group also saw profits improve, hitting £2m and bouncing back from a £6.2m loss.

Since reopening its site post-lockdown, the company has reported a 29.9 per cent increase, which it has said is partially driven by the government’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme.

Nick Collins, CEO of Loungers, said: “I am delighted with the strength of our performance since reopening, which highlights how strategically well-positioned we are in both Lounge and Cosy Club.

“Our like for like sales of +30 per cent over the last 10 weeks includes the remarkable four weeks of the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, and the government’s support for our sector continues to be much appreciated.

“More importantly, however, having fully reopened our underlying sales are in growth even without this support.

“We have focused on providing amazing hospitality, whilst reassuring our teams and customers the Lounges and Cosy Clubs are a safe environment, and our customers have been quick to return.

“During lockdown we were confident the flexibility of our all-day offer, our suburban and market town locations and our focus on hospitality and community would ensure we emerged strongly. I believe these results have confirmed that to be the case.

“Clearly we don’t know what is around the corner. We anticipate further interruption to trade on either a local or regional basis in the short-term and have the balance sheet and liquidity to withstand significant further Covid impacts.

“Covid has, however, strengthened our belief in the potential scale of both brands in the longer-term and the behavioural shifts being witnessed further underline this.

“In the second half of the year we will cautiously re-start the roll-out and we are excited about the property opportunities available to us and getting back to opening 25 sites a year in due course.

“I would like to thank our team across the UK for their extraordinary contribution over the last six months. It has been an immensely challenging period and their determination and hard-work have allowed us to not just get through it, but to emerge a better business.”