London Cocktail Club owner Nightcap sees its shares jump after sales rocket as drinkers flood back to its bars since indoor reopening
- Revenues rose 92% in the last three weeks compared to the same period in 2019
- Weekly sales at its seven newly acquired bars hit an all-time of more than £520K
- Company continues to take advantage of the crisis to expand its stable of bars
London Cocktail Club owner Nightcap has said recent sales have smashed its expectations as drinkers flooded back to its bars since indoor seating was allowed on 17 May.
The group, co-founded and led by former Dragons’ Den investor Sarah Willingham, also said its management teams were ‘travelling around the UK looking for new properties’ as the group continues to take advantage of the crisis to expand its stable of bars.
Revenues rose 92 per cent in the last three weeks since the reopening of indoor hospitality compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic struck, with like-for-like sales up 53 per cent.
Back to the bars: Sales at Nightcap’s 19 bars rose 92% in the last three weeks
The performance across its 19 bars in London, Bristol and Birmigham was well ahead of its expectations, Nightcap said, especially given that the bars have ‘restricted capacity’ due to social distancing requirements.
Shares in Nightcap jumped as much as 18 per cent in early trading following the update. They were up by a smaller 4.4 per cent to 24p by 11am on Tuesday.
The group owns the London Cocktail Club, a chain of 12 premium bars in London and Bristol.
Last month, it also took over Adventure Bar Group and its seven bars, which include Luna Springs in Birmingham and Bar Elba, a rooftop bar in London’s Waterloo.
Weekly sales at the newly acquired bars hit an all-time, cumulative record of more than £520,000, the company said as it notched up 96 per cent growth compared to 2019.
‘Particularly encouraging’ were sales at Luna Springs, its first outdoor bar in Birmingham which opened on 12 April this year, as well as Tonight Josephine, also in Birmingham – the first of the chain to open outside London.
It added that if all lockdown restrictions are not lifted on June 21, it still has ‘confidence that all sites will continue to trade well’ even with current social distancing limits remaining in place.
Former Dragon Den’s investor Sarah Willingham is Nightcap’s co-founder and chief executive
Nightcap floated on London’s junior AIM market in January and recently raised £10million to help fund its acquisition of the Adventure Bar Group, more than doubling its initial fundraising target.
The stock market debut came shortly after it bought the London Cocktail Club for an initial £5.7million sum.
The group has been looking to take advantage of attractive property opportunities in the hospitality sector following the impact of the pandemic.
‘The Group continues to expand its opening pipeline for the next three years,’ it said in a statement today.
‘Our management teams are travelling around the UK looking for new properties and we have a number of sites that are currently in legal negotiations across several of the Group’s brands.’