Market uncertainty sees Nightcap slow expansion despite strong trading results
The Cocktail Club and Tonight Josephine owner has reported its full year results for the year ended 3 July 2022, with revenue rising to £36m from £6m the year before. Profit before tax was £238,000, compared to a loss of £53m the previous year, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose from £0.2m to £3.3m.
“I am extremely proud to present these excellent audited results,” says CEO Sarah Willingham, who describes them as reflecting Nightcap's 'first full year of trading' - the group having been set up during the pandemic in September 2020.
“Our year has been eventful, fun and, at all times, rewarding. During the year the number of bars we operated increased from 19 to 31 and this reflects our strong growth, driven by both new openings and acquisitions.”
During the year, Nightcap took the number of bars it operated from 19 to 31, driven both by new openings and acquisitions. The group has opened further sites since the year end and currently operates 36 bars.
However, despite favourable conditions in the property market, the group plans to slow down its expansion plans accordingly, focusing on maximising returns from existing and newly opened sites.
“We have opened several more sites post year end taking the total amount of opened bars to 36 and, whilst there are a growing number of outstanding sites available to us on increasingly advantageous terms, build costs have continued to increase and trading in the first 13 weeks of the new financial year (period to 2 October 2022) has been adversely impacted by record warm weather, train strikes and the cost of living crisis,” continues Willingham.
“With the uncertainty in the economic climate in mind, we will slow down our expansion plans of new site openings during the current financial year. Our focus will be to maximise returns from our existing and newly opened sites and then continue our roll out programme as market conditions improve.”
