The Original Bowling Company, the Electra Partners backed firm, is to open the first new site featuring its full revised format, chief executive Steve Burns has told M&C Report.
The revised bar and food offer and design will be on display at its Basildon site, which is being refurbished at the moment.
Burns said: “So far we have slowly drip-fed the concept but we have seen the impact that has had and it has given us the confidence to go the full hog.”
The Hollywood Bowl operator has another two sites earmarked for opening next year and early 2017. The currently 44-strong company wants to open five sites in the next three years.
Burns said for the six months to the end of March revenue was up 6% on a like-for-like basis and 7% overall versus last year. EBITDA was 19.2% up on like-for-like basis and 28.2% overall.
The company has invested £2m in capital which includes rebranding two sites and two major refurbishment projects. The company plans to spend another £1.5m on the next stage of refurbishments.
The net promotor score is currently just over 60%,
Burns said the latest openings had already proved popular with Cheltenham trading 8% above budget and Milton Keynes’ like-for-like sales up 3% on a successful first year.
Matthew Hart was appointed earlier this year as commercial director, having previously worked at Encore Theatre Ticket Ltd. Burns said Hart’s experience in ecommerce had already proved invaluable.
Burns said: “What’s reasonably challenging is finding new sites. We are looking at a mixture of inner city space for boutique operations as well as out of town sites. But they’re not coming out of the ground as quickly as they used to.”
Burns said he was focussed on ensuring all day parts were driving revenue but he added: “We are also aware that we are a leisure operation where trade mirrors the school holiday season rather than any particular weather patterns. Also the out of town leisure mix parks aren’t particularly busy mid-week. So, we do want to focus our resources on the times when our customers most want to use us.
The company was bought by Electra Partners for £91m in September last year and Burns said the new owners had been fully supportive of the management’s growth ambitions.
