Hippodrome owner eyes trading upturn

Theme bar operator Luminar today hailed an improved trend over the summer as it overcame June’s sharp drop-off in trading.

The UK company which owns the world-famous London Hippodrome and the Liquid, Chicago Rock Café and Jumpin’ Jaks brands, saw negative like-for-like sales start to improve in July and August.

Shares rose 5% after the trading statement.

Luminar recently said conditions in the late-night market became more volatile during June, with sales falling sharply at the beginning of the month.

The group, which has been switching its focus to branded clubs, said today that results for the first half were in line with hopes.

It said: “As anticipated at the time of the AGM statement, trading through July and August has improved from the difficult conditions experienced in June and accordingly results for the first half are broadly in line with expectations.”

Like-for-like sales were down 4.1% in July and improved to stand 2.2% lower in August.

A 3.7% fall in cumulative same-venue sales for the 26 weeks to August 29 was “significantly offset” by a good performance on margins and the contribution from nine new sites.

Analyst James Wheatcroft at Investec Securities said improved cost control and the disposal of underperforming units led to slightly better than expected margins during July and August.

He said: “The weight of refurbishments and a reasonable comparison period in the second half should help to improve like-for-like sales through the rest of the year.”

Investec is expecting Luminar to post pre-tax profits of £58.3m (€85.3m) for the year to the end of February, down from £61.6m (€90.1m) last time.

Luminar is in the process of refitting the 62-strong Chicago Rock Café chain and outlets in its unbranded clubs arm.

It is spending £100m (€146m) on transforming 54 of the unbranded arm’s 160 sites into four concept brands – Oceana, Lava or Ignite, Liquid and Life.

The company, which has a total of nearly 300 venues, is due to announce its interim results on November 11.