Various Eateries sees sales rise after opening new restaurants

Various Eateries, the group behind restaurants Coppa Club and Noci, saw its half-year revenue grow by over 10 per cent after it launched two new locations.

The listed business revealed its results for the first half of 2024 which show its revenue totalled £22.7m, up from £20.6m in the same period last year.

Its gross profit also leaped by 138.2 per cent to £1.3m, up from £600,000. The group stated that this was driven by cost savings and “efficiencies relating to colleagues and suppliers”.

However, Various Eateries saw yet another loss to its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of £1.2m. This comes after the business suffered an EBITDA loss of £1.9m in the first half of 2023.

The update to the London Stock Exchange this morning highlighted that the sales growth was largely driven by new site openings of Noci in Richmond and Coppa Club Townhouse in Cardiff.

According to the executive chairman’s review, its like-for-like revenues were slightly down on last year’s figure, which was put down to “an unseasonably wet winter”.

Various Eateries also has a strategy where it absorbs “most cost increases rather than passing them on to customers.”

It is noted that “while this strategy temporarily puts pressure on margins, it is management’s belief that prioritising customer satisfaction over short-term profits will position the group for significant growth when conditions improve.”

But the group stated that it was tempered somewhat by the impact of the minimum wage increase in April.

The company’s outlook stated that performance at the start of the second half of 2024 has been steady, although there has not been any real consistency in the weather.

Commenting on the results, Andy Bassadone, executive chairman of Various Eateries, said: “In a tough trading environment compounded by poor weather, the performance of the group has been resilient, and I thank our whole team for their efforts.”

He also noted that “the majority of the company’s larger sites deliberately have large and attractive outside spaces, which generate a considerable extra volume of trade in warm weather.”

He added the “the company’s full year budgets therefore reflect an expectation that, at some point, we will experience a reasonable version of summer this year, rather than the inconsistent weather we’ve seen so far.”