Updates & Ideas

Loungers - Roll-out target upped from 400 to 600

September 2023

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Over the month I met with Nick Collins, CEO of casual dining group, Loungers for the third time post results. The present becalmed state of the shares is at odds with the fact that the company has almost doubled the number of outlets since listing in April 2019 (from 146 to to 234), all self-financed from cash flow. It trades on an EV (market cap plus debt) to EBITDA of just 5.8x versus 13.3x shortly after its float. The free cash flow yield of 14% signals a virtual give-away for a company with net debt (ex leases) of just £6.1m and it retains £42.5m of facilities, which provides the firepower to match Collins’ upgraded expansion targets. The rout in retail has led to a swathe of empty sites with Loungers taking over pitches from ...

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Loungers (December 2024)

Loungers - Opening 35 casual dining outlets annually there’s plenty of runway to 665 target (September 2024)

Loungers (June 2024)

Loungers - Strong trading delivers new upgrade (January 2024)

Loungers - Like-for-like sales accelerate to almost 10% (December 2023)

Loungers (June 2023)

Loungers (February 2023)

Loungers - Accelerating new openings from 24 to 32 as it eyes 500 outlets (September 2022)

Loungers (June 2022)

Loungers (February 2022)

Loungers (January 2021)

Loungers (December 2020)

Loungers (October 2020)

Loungers - Best-in-class cafe bar group looks set to beat forecasts (September 2020)

Loungers - New issue moves to healthy premium (June 2019)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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