Be At One to open four more sites as profit and revenue climb

17 May 2011 by
Be At One to open four more sites as profit and revenue climb

London cocktail bar Be At One is to open four London sites in the next 12 months as it unveiled improved turnover and profit for the year.

The company saw group sales increase 23% to £8.3m with earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 8.6% to £1.55m for the year ended 3 April.

Meanwhile like-for-like sales at the sites open for over a year have grown 8.5% to £7.3m with operational profit growing by 9.4%.

The new sites will be funded from existing bank facilities. But Be At One said that as new site opportunities became available, it was reviewing potential financing arrangements that would allow the increased rate of expansion to be sustained.

The financial year 2009/10 saw one opened at a larger scale site in Shoreditch in July, with a capacity for 300 people. In January, Be At One Putney also underwent an extensive refurbishment.

During the past year, Be At One also appointed Andrew Stones to the role of operations director, who joined with experience at Whitbread, JD Wetherspoon, Esporta and most recently as group operations director of American Amusements.

The company said trading since the year end continued to perform strongly with Easter, the good weather and the Royal Wedding all contributing positively.

Rhys Oldfield, co-founder of Be At One, said: "Be At One has had yet another year of strong growth across all our sites. After 13 years, our concept is as relevant to our customers as it was when we opened our first in Battersea in 1998 and that is testament to our focused strategy of delivering consistently high quality cocktails, classic tunes and great service.

"This has been a year of significant progress for Be At One. We opened a fantastic new site in Shoreditch, strengthened our management team with the appointment of Andrew Stones as operations director and have positioned the company for rapid growth in the coming year."

Business secrets from the Be At One founders >>

Like-for-like sales rise 8.4% at Be At One >>

Be At One boosts like-for-like sales by 13% >>

Be At One bucks winter gloom with record December sales >>

By Neil Gerrard

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