Novus festive sales up for fourth year in a row

By Peter Ruddick

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Revenue

Novus, who operate the Tiger Tiger brand, saw their festive sales rise for the fourth year in a row
Novus, who operate the Tiger Tiger brand, saw their festive sales rise for the fourth year in a row
Restaurant and bar operator Novus Leisure has revealed like for like sales were up 18 per cent over the festive period, led by the success of the recently acquired city bar chain Balls Brothers and an increase of pre-booked and advance corporate events.

The Tiger Tiger operator said that even when the snow and poor weather conditions of 2010 were taken into account the figures represented an achievment for the company as sales growth was also up 26 per cent on two years ago.

Novus reported that the strong festive figures between November 21 and January 1 represented the fourth year of Christmas and New Year sales increases and the 10th quarter of growth in a row for the group.

Pre-booked guests and corporate parties

The chain who operate premium bars and clubs mainly in the West End and City districts of the capital also offer food across a number of their brands and the group saw food sales growth rise 12 per cent in the period meaning food accounted for 38 per cent of total revenue.

Steve Richards, chief executive of Novus Leisure, put the strong performance down to online and pre-booked corporate events which accounted for 78% of the revenue: "This year we spent a lot of time enhancing our corporate party packages which enabled us to increase prices but maintain value in what is a very tough market, our advanced bookings were substantially up on last year as was spend per head."

"We continue to strengthen our USP of generating pre–booked sales from our digital booking systems which continue to drive much of our growth, differentiate us from other operators and allow us to capitalise on the corporate market and focus on the 25-33 year-olds with more disposable income," Richards added.

Balls Brothers and Lewis & Clarke acquisition

Novus took on 15 Balls Brothers and Lewis & Clarke sites in early 2011 after they bought the trading companies out of administration​ and began a re-brand of the bars under the 'Exchange' format.

These bars in particular helped the strong performance of the group. Novus said that sales in the Balls Brothers sites were up 38 per cent across the festive period and were up by 311 per cent at New Year.

Announcing the figures, Novus also revealed that four of the Balls Brothers sites had now been re-branded following the first refurbishment at the Lime Street branch​.

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