REG - Revolution Bars - H1 Trading Update

Revolution BarsAnnouncement

20/01/2022 07:05

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220120:nRST0175Za&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 0175Z  Revolution Bars Group  20 January 2022

Revolution Bars Group plc (LSE:RBG)

H1 Trading Update

Revolution Bars Group plc ("the Group" or "the Company"), a leading operator
of 67 premium bars, trading mainly under the Revolution and Revolucion de Cuba
brands, today announces a trading update for the 26 weeks ended 1 January
2022.

As previously reported, LFL sales for the majority of the half, from 19 July
2021, when restrictions were relaxed in England, to 13 November were very
strong at +14% versus the comparable period two years ago. Overall, 2-year LFL
sales for the period from 19 July 2021 to 1 January 2022 remained positive at
+1.4%, with the business performing as well as could be anticipated given the
additional restrictions imposed on our guests in the Christmas period.

Sales over the Christmas period were impacted by the move to 'Plan B'
including the return to the 'Work From Home' instruction, implementation of
Vaccine Passports for late night bars and government messaging which
unhelpfully encouraged the limiting of social interactions. LFL sales for the
6 week period ending 1 January were -23% when compared with the same period 2
years ago, the last unaffected Christmas period.

The impact of the Government actions was most felt in the cancellation of
office parties.  Pre Booked Revenue, an indicator of Corporate Christmas
parties, was -39% for the 6 week period to the 1st January 2022 when compared
to 2019/20. However, the total number of bookings during the 6 week period was
at +19% highlighting that our young guest base were still keen to go out and
enjoy themselves. Both of these metrics were significantly higher earlier in
December before the Omicron variant and negative government messaging took
hold. Pleasingly, many of the corporate parties have already been rebooked for
early in 2022.

Our refurbishment programme has continued as planned and we have completed 6
refurbishments and are pleased with their early performance, with a further 13
to complete in current financial year.  We have a strong pipeline of new
sites building and are currently in negotiations on 5 sites, expecting to sign
the lease on our first new site imminently.

Cash, net of bank loans, was £4.7m as at 19 January 2022 following the
utilisation of a portion of the funds raised last year on our refurbishment
programme.

Despite the government's response to Omicron, which in our view was overly
cautious and caused a substantial loss of trade during the important festive
season, the Board remains confident of achieving its full year expectations
assuming that the Covid landscape does not significantly deteriorate. We are
encouraged by the strong performance pre Christmas and yesterday's welcome
announcement from the Government about easing all restrictions but are
nonetheless alert to and monitoring closely the inflationary pressures
building across all elements of the supply chain and are taking action to
mitigate these where possible.

The Group intends to publish its Interim Results for the first half on 1 March
2022.

Rob Pitcher, CEO of Revolution Bars Group, said:

'I am so proud of our team's resilience in the face of the confusing
government messaging and the disappointment of the wave of corporate booking
cancellations it caused during December. The only comfort is that many of
these parties have already been rebooked and it was pleasing to see the number
of general guest bookings significantly up versus 2019 demonstrating that our
young guest base remains as enthused and excited about our offering as we are.

Yesterday's news of the scrapping of the work from home guidance and the
cancellation of all other restrictions is very welcome for our business and
will actively help rebuild consumer confidence. It is imperative that going
forward there are no further restrictions as we all learn to live alongside
Covid 19.

We continue to urge the Government to support the recovery of the hospitality
industry by leaving VAT at 12.5% and retaining business rates relief in line
with the current levels of support.

Our robust performance in H1 proves the resilience of our business, that our
guests enjoy the fun and memorable experience we create which results in a
highly cash generative business when operating free of restrictions.'

 

 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 / Richard Chambers (ECM)
 Peel Hunt LLP, Joint Broker                                   Tel: 020 7418 8900

 George Sellar / Andrew Clark
 Instinctif (Financial PR)                                     Tel: 020 7457 2005/7427 1445

 Matt Smallwood

 

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  TSTBKCBPFBKDNDD