27th Sep 2019 10:43
(Alliance News) - Escape Hunt PLC on Friday said its loss narrowed in the first half of 2019 thanks to new sites opened in the UK in 2018, plus new rooms in 2019.
The escape room owner posted a GBP3.2 million pretax loss for the six months ended June 30, shrinking from a GBP3.8 million loss the year before.
This was primarily due to revenue growth, which more than doubled and close to trebled, reaching GBP2.2 million versus just GBP800,000 the year before.
Chief Executive Richard Harpham explained the revenue rise "reflects the opening of the UK sites during 2018 and additional rooms in 2019". Harpham added the firm's focus until summer was "on driving bookings in the rooms available with friends and family groups".
"In July 2019 a specialist commercial sales company was contracted to drive the corporate marketing across all sites and their sales team has made rapid progress already in achieving a pipeline of corporate business. While still early days, if the agency performs in line with their expectations, we expect strong growth from this channel," the CEO noted.
Harpham said the second half of the year began well and July revenue was an improvement over May and June, with August revenue "establishing a new record".
"While the business was both transitioning from Bangkok and in start-up mode, a number of staff were needed in 2018 and the first half of 2019 to assist in this process. Now the business is more established, it has been possible to reduce some costs across the business and the benefit of these reductions will be seen in the fourth quarter and into 2020. These costs represent an annualized saving of circa GBP450,000," said the CEO.
"Given the early stage nature of the business and number of initiatives being pursued, both in the UK and abroad, it is difficult to predict the exact timing when things come to fruition, but overall we are confident that during the remainder of the year, we will see continued progress in line with expectations," he added.
Shares in Escape Hunt were untraded in London on Friday morning, last quoted at 52.00 pence.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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