Revolution Bars - Pre-Close Statement

Revel Collective

26/07/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 1799H  Revolution Bars Group  26 July 2023

Revolution Bars Group plc (LSE:RBG)

Pre-Close Statement

Revolution Bars Group plc ("the Group"), a leading operator of 68 premium bars
and 21 beautiful pubs, trading mainly under the Revolution, Revolución de
Cuba and Peach Pubs brands, is pleased to update on the year ended 2 July 2023
("FY23") which is anticipated to be in line with market expectations.

Trading

Peach Pubs have continued to trade strongly and in line with business
expectations at acquisition, with full year like-for-like(1) ("LFL") sales
+14% ahead of pre-Covid LFLs. The Peach team is now largely integrated into
the wider group, our guests are enjoying their experiences in our pubs and
gardens, and our menus and amazing service continue to delight. We see
significant opportunities to invest in and expand this exciting brand when
appropriate to do so.

Overall Group LFLs were (8.7)% vs pre-Covid, as trading in our late-night bars
has continued to be difficult with our younger guests struggling financially
in the current challenging economic environment. Notwithstanding these trading
conditions, we are very pleased to see our Christmas party pre-booked revenue
24.7% up compared to the same time last year, showing that our corporate
guests are looking forward to enjoying the festive period with us.

We have managed the inflationary cost environment proactively, and are pleased
to see wholesale electricity prices reduce from their peak last year. In
addition, we have tightly controlled spend across the Group in the second half
of FY23.

We paused our major refurbishment programme in January, having completed five
significant refurbs in the preceding six months, when the depth of the
challenges faced by the UK economy more generally, and our Revolution guests
in particular, became clear. These refurbishments have performed well,
outperforming the rest of the estate, and have largely delivered the two-year
pay back expectation. Assuming that trading continues in line with our
expectations, we are committed to restarting this programme as soon as we are
able. Until then we are limiting capital investment to where it is essential
to maintain and enhance the condition of the key assets in the estate.

With a positive contribution from Peach Pubs, and notwithstanding the
challenging trading conditions for our late-night bars, we are pleased to be
able to confirm FY23 EBITDA (IAS 17) is expected to be in line with market
expectations of £6.6m. The Group had net bank debt of £20.8m as at 25 July
2023.

We expect the trading conditions we operate in to remain challenging for FY24
and look forward to the all-important peak trading period at Christmas which
we hope will be the first uninterrupted peak period since 2019.

The Group intends to publish its Preliminary Results for the financial year
ended 2 July 2023 on 17 October 2023.

Rob Pitcher, CEO of Revolution Bars Group, said:

"Our acquisition of Peach Pubs was well timed given the impact of the economic
challenges to the younger guests in our Revolution bars alongside the working
from home trend being exacerbated by continued uncertainty on the rail
network.

The Pubs estate is in great shape and I have enjoyed getting to know the teams
at the pubs, as well as seeing our guests enjoy themselves in our beautiful
gardens. There is a huge opportunity to strengthen and grow this brand and I
look forward to us embracing that.

Our vision and strategy to delight our guests across all our brands is
delivering, and when our guests have the opportunity to go out and enjoy
themselves we see them come to us, where our teams across the group love
making them feel welcome.

FY23 has been very challenging, however we have controlled costs and limited
capex in the second half to reduce net debt. I'd like to take this opportunity
to thank our teams, in all roles, for their enthusiasm, commitment and
resilience, as everything we achieve is down to their hard work.

 

(1)Like-for-like (LFL) sales are same site sales defined as sales at only
those venues that traded in the same week in both the current year and
comparative reporting periods

 

Enquiries:

 Revolution Bars Group plc                                    Tel: 0161 330 3876
 Rob Pitcher, CEO

 Danielle Davies, CFO

 FinnCap, NOMAD and Joint Broker                              Tel: 020 7220 0500
 Matt Goode / Simon Hicks / Teddy Whiley (Corporate Finance)

 Tim Redfern / Charlotte Sutcliffe (ECM)

 Peel Hunt LLP, Joint Broker                                  Tel: 020 7418 8900
 George Sellar / Andrew Clark

 Instinctif (Financial PR)                                    Tel: 020 7457 2005/020 7457 2010
 Matt Smallwood / Justine Warren

 

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