Revolution bar struggles

Yet another Macclesfield’s business could be falling victim to the economy.

Revolution, on Mill Street, Macclesfield, has announced it has put new openings on hold as it makes savings of £1.5m

The Manchester based chain said in its interim results for the last six months of 2018 that EBITDA has fallen by £3m to £6.9m.

It blamed the poor results on management instability and a lack of investment in the brand and poor trading in the sector has continued into the new year.

As well cutting costs the company said it is planning to concentrate on existing venues and will put a halt on any new openings.

The business, which operates 79 bars, saw a four per cent drop in like for like sales with revenues standing at £78.5m.

The company issued a profit warning earlier this year which resulted in shares falling by 17%.

Like for like sales for the period fell by four per cent but improved to -3.1% in the second quarter. The four week festive period saw positive like for like sales at 2.6%, a sixth consecutive year of festive growth. Overall, the five new sites opened in the period are trading well and the firm expects them to deliver good returns.

The company said sales declined due to under-investment in the brand’s proposition, exacerbated by management instability and the hot summer.

The Group has identified a total of £1.5m annualised cost savings, of which actions to deliver £650,000 have recently been initiated.

Rob Pitcher, chief executive, said: “While Revolución de Cuba has performed well and delivered growth in the reporting period, it is clear that the lack of investment into the Revolution proposition is impacting performance.

“Revolution has been reviewed, the issues identified, and workstreams are being implemented to restore it to growth.

“Our confidence in achieving this is underpinned by the good performance of the new Revolution venues, while the recently refurbished sites are also seeing uplifts.

“We have therefore decided to prioritise the refurbishment programme over new openings. We expect trading to improve as we come up against softer comparatives for the rest of the financial year.”