Caravan will focus on expansion outside of London as it looks towards a new site opening in Manchester this summer.
In a financial report for the period ended 25 June 2023, the Caravan Restaurants group saw “strong trading performance,” with year-on-year growth in both customer transaction volumes and spend across restaurants as well as success across “every day part”.
During the year, the business increased total statutory reported turnover by +9.8% to £22.1m (2022: £20.1m), and by +16.3% when removing the impact of prior year Covid related support.
This growth in turnover was driven by like-for-like growth of +7.6% year-on-year and the full-year contribution of the seventh restaurant in Canary Wharf, which opened midway through the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the year more than quadrupled to £1.0m (2022: £0.24m).
The business has focussed on driving sales growth, continual improvements to profitability, and on building the pipeline for new openings. Its eighth restaurant in London’s Covent Garden opened following period end and has so far “exceeded expectations.”
It has subsequently exchanged contracts on the ninth Caravan site and first outside of London, due to open in Manchester in mid 2024.
”Looking ahead, the business is focussed on continuing sustainable, profitable growth, and further expansion of the restaurant estate outside of London, and the UK,” it said.
”We continue to deliver a sector leading brand proposition, with a highly engaged team and a loyal customer base, with excellent profitability across all day parts. The year to June 2023 demonstrated further progress in growing sales and profitability, despite significant external challenges to the business from strikes, inflation and the global energy crisis.”
During the year, Caravan continued to reduce consumption of water and energy across its business, with particular focus on coffee brewing and delivery.
It has increased the scale of a female producer programme across its coffee range with over 50% sourced from female producers and is also in the process of attaining B Corp status for the group; having removed single use plastics from the business, amongst many further initiatives on the journey to becoming climate positive.
