Revolution Bars Group chief executive Mark McQuater has told MCA that the market for acquisitions remains buoyant as long as operators are willing to look at non-traditional sites.
McQuater said the group’s 16.2% sales hike over the five-week festive trading period showed that the “big occasions are getting bigger” and that the successful operators would be those who could build an engaging story around these key events.
He said the group - which has just secured licensing consent to open in Torquay - remained interested in launching in northern Ireland but refused to comment on a rumoured site in Belfast.
The 66-strong operator yesterday announced like-for-like sales up 2% over the 26 weeks to 31 December, and McQuater said the group was seeing a good mix of growth from new and existing sites.
He said: “What’s also pleasing is that we are now very much a national brand and we are seeing growth across that diverse estate.”
McQuater said the group was driving trade in the quieter January period through food offers and a marketing push and that he was confident about the year to come.
On further acquisitions, he said: “We’re on site at our fifth development of the financial year and growth is demonstrably underway and we have a pipeline that is well developed.
“There are still opportunities out there but thigs aren’t always as simple as they were. With the likes of BHS exiting the high street it means there is a lot of space on the market. The issue you have then got is how you get that to a different use and means that you are in the hands of local councils.”
McQuater said the senior team at Revolution was now largely where he wanted it to be, with Jemima Bird, the former Tragus marketing director, completing the set of three non-executive directors on the board in December.
On the journey in shifting the public perception of Revolution Bars away from it being a purely late-night operator, McQuater said: “We’re a long way along that journey. We went through the evolution programme three years ago, and we have massively boosted the Revolucion de Cuba estate in the time since we floated.
“We’re a composite business – we are a bar, a restaurant and our customers can stay with us until midnight/1am if they want to. I would say that’s a healthy balance to have achieved.”
