Casual dining chain Loungers has said the launch of its roadside dining concept has “in no way distracted” from its plans to grow to more than 600 sites.
The group launched the Brightside concept earlier this year, opening three sites by August. It plans to open two more next year.
Chief executive Nick Collins said the launch “has in no way distracted from our focus on or the performance of the Lounge and Cosy Club brands”.
Announcing results for the 24 weeks to 1 October, Collins said total revenue was up by 22.3% to £150m, while pretax profit of £3.9m represented a rise of 39%.
Over the period the group opened 16 new sites, and said it was on track to open 34 by the end of the year.
Collins said: “Our new openings continue to perform very well and above average, and the pipeline remains in good shape to deliver at our current roll-out rate of around 34 sites per year.”
He added that expansion was still very much the watchword, repeating the “conservative” target of 600 Lounges and 65 Cosy Clubs across the UK.
There are currently 205 Lounges across England and Wales, 36 Cosy Clubs and three Brightside locations.
“Geographically we are seeing more opportunities in the North East as we gradually move towards Scotland, but there still remains a great deal for us to go for across England and Wales,” he said. “We are enjoying strong trading in mixed-use retail/leisure parks and coastal locations, alongside our ‘bread and butter’ of suburban and small town high street locations.”
Collins said the success of the group was dependant on “the maintenance of strong property discipline”. Its rent-to-revenue ratio was 4.4% in the first half.
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