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(Alliance News) - Cocktail bar and restaurant owner Revolution Bars PLC said Tuesday its new financial year has seen like-for-like sales growth return, following a tough past year in which profit struggled amid cost rises.
For the year ended June, pretax loss deepened to GBP5.6 million from GBP3.6 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 6.7% to GBP151.4 million from GBP141.9 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by operating costs jumping to GBP112.4 million from GBP100.1 million the year prior, offsetting the impact of exceptional costs falling to GBP7.1 million from GBP11.1 million the year before.
Like-for-like sales fell 3.5% during financial 2019, but Revolution said this headline figure masked an "improving trend".
After reporting like-for-like sales down 4.0% on a year prior in the first six months of financial 2019, the second half saw the decline soften to 2.9%, with the fourth quarter only 1.8% lower on the year before.
This positive trend has continued into the new financial year ending June 2020.
"A return to positive like-for-like sales in the first quarter of the current year reflects the hard work by the team in stabilising the business," Revolution Chief Executive Officer Rob Pitcher said.
"We will invest in our team, our brand experience and our estate to continue to improve performance," Pitcher added. "Our progress demonstrates that our business is delighting our guests, and is both profitable and cash generative. We will utilise surplus cash to reduce debt to such an extent whereby any return to expansion of the estate will be self-funding."
Although "highly cash generative", Revolution said it will remain focused on repaying debt and investing in its business. Consequently, no dividend was proposed, in line with the year prior.
Shares in Revolution were 0.6% lower at 69.40 pence in London on Tuesday.
By Ahren Lester; ahrenlester@alliancenews.com
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