Sports Cafe sales surge off the back of new openings
Sports Cafe has reported a sales surge off the back of three new openings in the first half of the year.
The now eight-strong chain of sports bars said in a trading statement today that new sites in Bristol, Newcastle and Liverpool had ramped up sales 46% at the group during the half-year period.
Sports Cafe will open one new site, another in Bristol, this year but warned its Cardiff project had now been delayed until 2007 due to hold-ups in the development of the complex it is housed in.
It has also dumped its Sports Cafe Bet gambling business after legislators in the USA slammed the door to online companies earlier this month. Sports Cafe said this would remove approximately £250,000 from the company's cost base.
In September the Alternative Investment Market-listed company said it had received an approach about a possible takeover. Sports Cafe said several other approaches had now been made but as yet no formal offer had been tabled and talks continue.
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By Chris Druce