Record half year for Hollywood Bowl
The ten-pin bowling operator Hollywood Bowl, which has sites at Bentley Bridge, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury enjoyed a record first half of its financial year.
In the six months to the end of March revenue was up to £100.2 million.
It compared to £10.4m a year earlier when it was impacted more heavily by the pandemic and was up 36.3 per cent on the £67m in the pre-pandemic 2019.
The group's profit after tax was £27m following a £11.6m loss a year before.
The business was able to continue to trade in the half year with only a limited impact from Omicron in December.
Two new centres – Hollywood Bowl Birmingham Resorts World and Puttstars Harrow – opened and performed well. Two refurbishments completed in Birmingham Rubery and Glasgow Springfield Quay.
Also AMF Shrewsbury was refurbished and rebranded as Hollywood Bowl.
Group amusement revenue was up 43.6 per cent following improvements to games and layouts
Hollywood Bowl Belfast opened in April and two new centres are planned to open within the next six months, with a strong new centre pipeline for both the Hollywood Bowl and Puttstars brands .
Chief executive Stephen Burns said: "We saw exceptional pent-up demand in the first half which, in addition to the investments made in our customer experience, led to us achieving a record first half with four of our top performing months ever. I am very proud of the hard work that went into delivering this excellent performance with high customer satisfaction scores and we were delighted to reward our team members as well as now reinstating our dividend.
"The strength of our balance sheet supports our ability to continue to invest in our growth strategy, including growing our portfolio in the UK as well as our entry into the Canadian market. While we are aware of the financial challenges many of our customers are facing, we continue to provide a great value for money experience. We are confident that demand will remain resilient as families seek out affordable leisure activities."
