Loungers, the Piper-backed café/bar operator, has strengthened its openings pipeline with almost all of the 20 sites the company intends to open next year already agreed and a number of sites secured for 2016 openings.
Amongst the 2015 pipeline are Lounge openings in Sutton Coldfield, Frome, Falmouth, Amersham, and Southampton and Cosy Club openings in Birmingham, Manchester and Bournemouth.
The group is set to open its eighth Cosy Club site in Leicester on Thursday this week.
Located on Highcross Street (adjacent to the Highcross Shopping Centre) the 5,500sq ft Leicester site is housed in a former hosiery factory. Loungers has invested £750k converting the ground floor and basement space of the building to provide a large bar area, a 130-seater dining area, a 40-seater private room and a 60-seater terrace.
Commenting on the Leicester opening Loungers managing director Alex Reilley said: “The Leicester opening has particularly significance for me and Jake as we both spent the first 22 years of our life there. It’s a really fantastic industrial space in a good spot in the city that should link nicely into the existing restaurant quarter in Leicester”.
The Leicester opening will be closely followed by the opening of the groups’ 53rd site, Cultivo Lounge, in Letchworth Garden City on the 22 October following the £550k conversion of the ground floor of a former Woolworths.
The group has also confirmed Lounge openings in Keynsham (12th November), Stroud (3rd December), and Peterborough (17th December) which will take Loungers up to 56 sites by the end of the year and will see the group meet its target of 15 openings in 2014.
Reilley said: “2014 has been a very good year for us, not just in terms of meeting our target of opening 15 sites but also in terms of how well the new openings have performed
“We continue to enjoy success at securing great sites and should meet our target of opening 20 sites in 2015 with ease. We’ve got some cracking sites lined up next year and we’re looking forward to taking another considerable stride towards reaching out target of 100 sites by 2017.”
