Various Eat. Regulatory News (VARE)

VARIOUS EATERIES PLC

("Various Eateries" or "the Company" and with its subsidiaries "the Group")

Year End Trading Update

Various Eateries PLC, the owner, developer and operator of all day club, restaurant and hotel sites in the United Kingdom, announces an update on trading for the 52-week period ending 1 October 2023.

Trading performance for the period was in line with expectations. Revenues were slightly higher than market expectations at £45.5m (unaudited) (2022: £40.7m), largely driven by new site openings. Site EBITDA (before pre-opening and IFRS16) is expected to be c.£3.8m (unaudited) with Group EBITDA (before AIM costs of £0.6m) expected to be a loss of c.£1.6m (unaudited).

Group like-for-like sales ("LFL"), excluding the benefit of the reduced rate of VAT in the prior year, were maintained, which is a good performance considering the challenging macroeconomic environment, continued train strikes and unseasonably wet weather in the spring and summer months.

Noci, designed to be a modern Italian pasta concept, is the result of work evolving Tavolino for the high street, and continues to perform well. H2 (April to September 2023) LFL sales at the first Noci site in Islington grew 23%. Noci's second and third sites opened in Battersea Power Station and Shoreditch, in May and September 2023 respectively and have both traded in line with management's expectations to date. With a proven blueprint, the Board considers Noci to be a very compelling near-term rollout opportunity and will focus initially on further openings in the Greater London area.

The Group's townhouse Coppa Clubs in Bath and Guildford, benefiting from high footfall city centre locations, delivered positive performances. This bodes well for the Group's townhouse sites in Cardiff and Farnham, scheduled to open in FY24. The performance of those Coppa Clubs with large outdoor spaces which benefitted in the prior year from exceptionally good weather, were impacted this year by extended periods of unusually wet conditions, including the wettest July since 2009.

The Group's Tavolino site continued to benefit from the steady return of office workers in central London, delivering LFL sales growth of 10%.

Previously announced inflationary pressures persisted throughout the year but encouragingly some, including food and energy, are beginning to ease. Reducing operational costs and improving efficiency remain priorities, along with exploring technological solutions.

As previously stated, in the Board's experience of navigating challenging market conditions, a focus on the top line as opposed to short-term profit maximisation is fundamental to the success of any roll-out strategy. The Group has therefore continued to prioritise revenue and customer retention, deliberately not passing cost increases onto customers in full. The Board firmly believes this will stand the Group's brands in good stead for sustainable long-term growth as the market recovers.

Cash at bank at 1 October 2023 was £1.9m (2022: £9.4m).

Andy Bassadone, Executive Chairman, commented:

"Our teams have worked hard to manage the perfect storm of challenges the industry has faced over the past 12 months and on behalf of the Board I would like to thank them for their efforts. In this context, Group performance has been steady with the traction Noci is building a particular highlight. While Noci is still a relatively small part of the Group, we expect it to become an increasingly core part of our growth strategy going forwards.

We continue to believe our strategy of focusing on the top line will leave us in a stronger long-term position than many in our industry who have compromised their offerings to protect short-term profits. Encouragingly, there are signs that some of the well-publicised pressures on margins are beginning to dissipate. Nonetheless, we continue to prioritise cost control and efficiency initiatives including leveraging new technology which will benefit the Group long after we emerge from the downturn.

Looking ahead to FY24, we intend to maintain a measured approach to opening new sites and, supported by strong and highly relevant brands, remain confident in our ability to accelerate progress as conditions improve."

Contacts

About Various Eateries 

Various Eateries owns, develops and operates restaurant, clubhouse and hotel sites in the United Kingdom. The Group's stated mission is "great people delivering unique experiences through continuous innovation". 

The Group is led by a highly experienced senior team including Hugh Osmond (Founder), Andy Bassadone (Executive Chairman), and Sharon Badelek (CFO). 

The Group operates three core brands across 18 locations: 

· Coppa Club, a multi-use, all day concept that combines restaurant, terrace, café, lounge, bar and workspaces 

· Tavolino, a restaurant aiming to address a gap in the market for high-quality Italian food at mid-market prices 

· Noci, a modern, neighbourhood pasta-only concept which serves very high-quality dishes at reasonable prices 

For more information visit www.variouseateries.co.uk