Inventive Leisure, the company that runs the Revolution chain of 25 vodka bars, announced this morning it was looking to raise £5.6m through a share offer to accelerate its continuing expansion.
The company's chief executive, Roy Ellis, said he and his board believed there was room for another 100 Revolution vodka bars in towns and cities across Britain.
Inventive has opened six new revolution barsin the past six months in in Doncaster, Lincoln, Soho in London, Birmingham, Preston and Aberdeen, with four more soon to open in Northampton, Clapham in South London, Bradford and Lancaster, contracts exchanged on another three sites and solicitors instructed on seven more.
However, Ellis said, the company's success so far had emphasised the importance of being "highly discriminating" in the appraisal and selection of new sites. The company was now opening larger sites, he said, in which it could create three distinct trading areas: a bar and dining area, a lounge area with sofas and log fires and an area suitable for dancing. Overall sales from the new sites have been "well ahead of expectations", Ellis said, with Birmingham, the largest Revolution opened to date, regularly approaching turnover of £50,000 a week.
Inventive's interim results for the six months to December 31 2001 showed turnover up 44% to £12.4m and pre-tax profit before exceptional items up 42% to £1.32m.
Like-for-like sales for the period were up only 1.2%, but Inventive said there had been an "encouraging" start to the second half, with like-for-likes up 2.9% for the 27 weeks to the end of February.
Ellis said revolution was benefiting from the rise in vodka sales in the UK generally, with total vodka sales now account for 35% of all sales in Revolution outlets, up from 31% over the same period in 2000. Shots of flavours, premiums and pouring vodka grew by 55%
and like-for-like cocktails and pitcher sales grew by 22% in the period.
The company has appointed a food development manager, and a combination of centralised buying, enhanced stock control and deskilling of the core menu, produced higher gross margins on food sales. Ellis said: "Food remains a small part of our business at 4% of Revolution sales but we view this as an area of opportunity for the future."
Profit margins before tax and exceptionals fell 0.2 percentage points
to 10.7% after a growth in beverage margins of 1.1 percentage points to 70.2% was offset by increased property costs. Rent as a percentage of sales increased year-on-year by 1.4 percentage points to 3.5%.
Net debt rose by £3.1 million to £11.4m, including £10.9m in bank loans and overdrafts against an overall facility of £13m. Gearing rose to 148% from 108% at the same point in 2000.
Last month Inventive sold two non-core sites in Rochdale, leaving it with 33 sites overall.
The company's chief executive, Roy Ellis, said he and his board believed there was room for another 100 Revolution vodka bars in towns and cities across Britain.
Inventive has opened six new revolution barsin the past six months in in Doncaster, Lincoln, Soho in London, Birmingham, Preston and Aberdeen, with four more soon to open in Northampton, Clapham in South London, Bradford and Lancaster, contracts exchanged on another three sites and solicitors instructed on seven more.
However, Ellis said, the company's success so far had emphasised the importance of being "highly discriminating" in the appraisal and selection of new sites. The company was now opening larger sites, he said, in which it could create three distinct trading areas: a bar and dining area, a lounge area with sofas and log fires and an area suitable for dancing. Overall sales from the new sites have been "well ahead of expectations", Ellis said, with Birmingham, the largest Revolution opened to date, regularly approaching turnover of £50,000 a week.
Inventive's interim results for the six months to December 31 2001 showed turnover up 44% to £12.4m and pre-tax profit before exceptional items up 42% to £1.32m.
Like-for-like sales for the period were up only 1.2%, but Inventive said there had been an "encouraging" start to the second half, with like-for-likes up 2.9% for the 27 weeks to the end of February.
Ellis said revolution was benefiting from the rise in vodka sales in the UK generally, with total vodka sales now account for 35% of all sales in Revolution outlets, up from 31% over the same period in 2000. Shots of flavours, premiums and pouring vodka grew by 55%
and like-for-like cocktails and pitcher sales grew by 22% in the period.
The company has appointed a food development manager, and a combination of centralised buying, enhanced stock control and deskilling of the core menu, produced higher gross margins on food sales. Ellis said: "Food remains a small part of our business at 4% of Revolution sales but we view this as an area of opportunity for the future."
Profit margins before tax and exceptionals fell 0.2 percentage points
to 10.7% after a growth in beverage margins of 1.1 percentage points to 70.2% was offset by increased property costs. Rent as a percentage of sales increased year-on-year by 1.4 percentage points to 3.5%.
Net debt rose by £3.1 million to £11.4m, including £10.9m in bank loans and overdrafts against an overall facility of £13m. Gearing rose to 148% from 108% at the same point in 2000.
Last month Inventive sold two non-core sites in Rochdale, leaving it with 33 sites overall.
