Cafe-bar group Loungers has experienced a surge in sales since reopening its restaurants, with the Eat Out to Help Out scheme helping drive growth over August.
The Bristol-founded business, which now operates 167 Loungers and Cosy Clubs across England and Wales, saw comparable sales jump 29.9 per cent from July 4 to September 13.
The company’s post-lockdown trading results announced this morning (September 16) revealed revenue rose to £166.5million for the financial year ending April 2020 - up from £152.9million the year before.
However, loss before tax widened from £6.7million to £14.7million over the same period.
Loungers said during the pandemic it secured an extra £15million in credit from its banks and £8.1million (net) of new equity to provide liquidity. It also cut directors’ pay by 50 per cent.
Nick Collins, chief executive of Loungers, said: “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 re-opened our underlying sales are in growth even without this support.”
He added: “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.”
Loungers said it would “cautiously re-start” the roll-out of new sites in the second half of the year.
Mr Collins added: “We are excited about the property opportunities available to us and getting back to opening 25 sites a year in due course.”
