Revolution Bars sees sales double during Eat Out days

Revolution Bars has said it smashed expectations last month after the Government’s pledge to give diners half-price meals made people flock to its sites, but warned that 11 bars could stay closed for much longer.

The company said sales at its reopened bars on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays were close to twice as high as in August last year.

The Treasury’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme picked up the bill for half of a meal during the first three days of the week.

The sites’ sales were 188.4% of the equivalent days last year, meaning that across the month sales were 77.5% of the figures in August 2019.

It is a major boost for the bar company, which in a previous update to investors said it was expecting sales to only reach just 55% of last year’s levels in the worst-case scenario.

The numbers may not be directly comparable but they show a strong performance for the bars, and helped send Revolution’s share price up by more than 10%.

But the firm has given up one of its leases in Liverpool and chief executive Rob Pitcher warned that 11 bars may not reopen until social distancing measures are relaxed further and sites are allowed to stay open later.

In the eight weeks to the end of August comparable sales were 72.5% of where they were last year.

“Having opened two-thirds of our estate I’m pleased that these bars have outperformed our base-case scenario assumptions, however, sales in the eight weeks since reopening commenced remain 27.5% below last year,” Mr Pitcher said.

“We have more openings planned during this week and next but will have 11 bars that are very unlikely to resume trading until there is a further relaxation of social distancing measures and late-night venues are legally allowed to reopen.”