The figures make impressive reading and indicate that there is still much to be positive about in the night sector. Company turnover is up 116% from £77.2million last year to £166.4m this year. The company’s pre-tax profit has more than doubled to £29.5m.
Underpinning the financial success has been an aggressive growth strategy, which has seen Luminar acquire 10 venues from Scottish and Newcastle plc (making it the largest operator of late night venues in Scotland) and also the Life Limited brand from Whitbread. It has also continued to roll out its own brands, including Chicago Rock Cafe, Jumpin’ Jaks and Liquid, together with the development of ukclubculture - a relatively recent initiative which is aimed at 14-17 year olds.
The interim results have set the agenda for the next 18 months, and the company has announced a major acquisitions and openings programme which will see 44 new venues added to the Luminar portfolio across 2002/2003.
The company has also reorganised its management structure - divisional directors John Aust, Alistair Burford and Brendan McLoughlin will now become functional heads and report directly to chief executive Stephen Thomas. Commenting on the results, Thomas told L&SI: "We continue to be totally focused on developing our concepts for differing lifestyle brands. Roll out and organic expansion will be funded through internally generated cash, and we will continue to seek efficiencies and economies of scale across the group to drive margins and returns. We are now entering the important Christmas/New Year period for which early bookings are encouraging and we are confident that the future looks good."
