Cooks Coffee Company has announced its results for the six months ended 30 September 2022, with H1 FY23 sales in its Esquires outlets up 20% and sales in Triple Two outlets 60% ahead of H1 FY22.
At the end of September 2022, the café chain operated 111 sites worldwide, including 85 sites in the UK and Ireland, with 50 Esquires stores and 20 Triple Two stores across the UK.
Esquires sales were up 35% on pre-pandemic levels from April to September 2019, and stores have recorded record sales post period end. Triple Two achieved record sales per store per day in August, which was exceeded in October.
Globally, Cooks reported revenue from operational trading increasing by 37% to $1.93m in H1 FY23, vs $1.41m in H1 FY22, driven by new store openings as well as like-for-like sales improvements.
Sales in all markets have showed recovery post-pandemic, according to the update.
Overall revenue declined to $3.1m from $3.66m in H1 FY22 “as a result of the timing of recognising capital revenues on store openings.” This revenue is expected to be recognised in H2 as planned new stores open.
Profit from continuing operations increased by 14% to $146,000 vs H1 FY22, with full year revenue and profit on track to meet expectations.
Following the period, the company completed its dual listing on the London-based Aquis. It also appointed Craig Brown as chief financial officer, Abby Haran as UK-based financial controller, Elena Garside as its first UK-based non-executive director.
The company has nine store openings planned in the UK and two in Ireland, which will take its total estate to 96 by the end of March 2023.
Keith Jackson, executive chairman, said: “The Directors believe the prospects for the business in the balance of the financial year and beyond are strong. The Company is committed to building the business based on ethical principles and community values.
“Store sales trends have been very positive in recent times, with the Company benefiting from the ‘working from home’ trend, which we are confident will remain in one form or another and there is a solid pipeline of new stores.
“With both the Esquires and Triple Two brands achieving record daily sales per store in October 2022, following strong performances in the first six months, the Directors are confident that the business models are well suited to the current consumer market and these results are being achieved despite the concerns being expressed regarding the general economic outlook.
“The Cooks Coffee model is based on a franchised network and is very scalable in a capital light manner. With the focus on core markets, we believe that we have critical mass with an ability to grow.
“We are continuing to seek to raise further capital in order to accelerate our growth and we believe that we can achieve growing profitability in a sustainable manner. We look forward to providing further updates in due course.”
