Brighton Pier Group reports good performance over New Year period
In a trading update for the 26-week period ending 26 December, the UK entertainment group said it expected group sales of £22.7m for the half year – up 177% on the same period in 2020, and up 31% against the comparable period in 2019.
Brighton Pier Group owns and operates eight bars that trade under a variety of concepts including Embargo Republica, Lola Lo, Le Fez, Lowlander and Coalition. It also operates Brighton Palace Pier in East Sussex and Lightwater Valley Theme Park in north Yorkshire as well as eight indoor mini-golf sites at retail and leisure centres under the Paradise Island Adventure Golf brand.
On a divisional basis, like-for-like sales in its bar division for the 23 weeks post July reopening were up 27% on 2019. Brighton Palace Pier saw like-for-likes up 15%, sales in its golf division were up 33% and trading at Lightwater Valley theme park, which is acquired in June 2021, were ahead of expectations, it says.
The group says that its strong cash flow generation is expected to enable it to pay down £7.7m of debt, reducing borrowings by 38% by the end of June 2022.
“Our businesses target growth within the UK entertainment sector; all are popular, cash generative, asset-backed businesses with further organic growth opportunities - particularly so in the Golf division and the recently acquired Lightwater Valley,” says Anne Ackord, chief executive officer at Brighton Pier Group.
“We expect that 2022 will be a good year. Alongside the announcement of our H1 results in March, we intend to give longer term-guidance showing what we believe our businesses can deliver as we emerge from the pandemic.”
