Revolution Bars chief executive Mark McQuater has told M&C the group is considering upping its growth target next year and is eyeing opportunities to optimise its existing estate by adding rooftop bars.
He said the group, which announced its H1 financial results yesterday, was looking across the UK for expansion with Scotland a key target.
He said only sites with the potential for all-day trading would be considered and said the company was continuing to evolve its food and drink, which had already resulted in higher spend per head.
On the company’s performance in the financial year so far, he said: “From what I can see we are outperforming many people in the industry. We’re a year on from our IPO and we’re delivering more than we said at the time. We have really leapt into growth mode in the last couple of months and doubled the size of the pipeline from last year.
“We’ve moved our products into an even more premium offer. We are targeting cocktails at £9 rather than a pint for £3 and we’re offering full table service. Customers have really responded to all that.
“We think growing by five sites for this year is the right number and we’re having a hard think about what next years’ number will be. I certainly don’t see it being any lower than five. It could be higher.
“We are looking across the country. We have got a good raft in Scotland that we’re looking at. Glasgow is very promising. We’re looking across the south eats – places like Reading, South End, Southampton. There are a couple of sites in London we’re looking at. We’ll look all over as long as the demographic is right.
On the work being done to the existing estate, he said: “In Huddersfield we have developed a roof terrace. It’s an enormous space. We put steels through the building and we are supporting a rooftop bar with a fully retractable roof. That’s gone brilliantly and we’re trading considerably up in Huddersfield during a period when there have been a lot of new openings.
“We are now looking at other project where we can give people that indoor/outdoor/ up-in-the-air experience.
“There’s a lot of planning permissions and noise emission permissions that need to be secured to make these sorts of projects a reality, so we’re talking single digits but when they do come through they’re very powerful. However, it needn’t be as dramatic as that. We can add extensions, move into new spaces in the buildings we’re in or extend into units next to our sites. We’re seeing a lot of opportunities to do things like that.”
Revolution Bars was once again named in the Best Companies to Work For list at the weekend.
McQuater said: “We are working incredibly on employee engagement. We gauge it every four months and get a score back from our employees. 70% of our people join that poll and tell us what we can do to improve their working lives.
“We have promoted 28 people to significant management positions over the past year.”
He said the National Living Wage was not likely to have a material impact in the coming year, with the bulk of employees aged under 25. He said the company currently had no plans to extend NLW to under-25s but stressed that company-wide workers are offered a strong package of benefits, including a 50% staff discount voucher.
