Shares in fellow hospitality firm Revolution Bars group also rose this morning, surging by 12.5% after it hiked its full-year outlook on hearing the Prime Minister’s announcement.
Revolution said it saw an “extremely strong” al-fresco reopening, with 25 reopened sites making 48% of 2019 sales between April 12 and May 9, despite operating at just 15% of total capacity.
Chief executive, Rob Pitcher, said that the 66-site chain will reopen all venues still closed on May 17 in a “landmark” day and also hailed “huge pent up demand”.
But Pitcher noted that Revolution venues will still only be able to trade at 50% capacity next week, and that his team “look forward to the full benefits still to come when all restrictions are lifted in mid- June”.
Long periods shuttered have hit the chain hard. It slid to a £17.7 million pre-tax loss for the half year to December 26, and had net bank debt at £28.5 million by May 10, with total available facilities of £40.2 million.
The group said: “Together with continued tight cost control and better-than-anticipated support from third parties, we now expect that our full-year performance for the year ending June 30 2021 will be ahead of previous management expectations.”
