Revolution Bars has resumed trading on AIM following the completion of a comprehensive restructuring plan designed to steer the business back to profitability.
After months of financial turbulence, the bar and pub chain, which includes brands such as Revolution, Revolución de Cuba, and Peach Pubs, has reissued over 1.26bn new ordinary shares.
The restructuring plan, first announced in April, was seen as a necessary step to prevent the business from collapsing.
It involved closing up to a quarter of its 80 bars and pubs and securing £12.5m in emergency funding.
These actions, the company said, would provide a “solid platform for recovery” after the group buckled under the pressure of customers spending less on nights out.
Revolution Bars had faced a challenging year, reporting a pre-tax loss of £22.2m in 2023.
The company had explored the possibility of a sale earlier this year but decided against it after rejecting a takeover bid from Nightcap in May.
Instead, it opted for a restructuring plan that involved “amending and extending” its secured lending facilities, closing underperforming locations, and negotiating rent reductions to restore profitability.
The group’s future, however, remains uncertain, with a forecasted statutory loss before tax of £15m for the year ending June 2024.
Despite Revolution Bars’s recent struggles, overall hospitality sector closures in Britain slowed this year thanks to a “modest revival” in independent restaurants and dining out, a new report revealed in May.
There were an average of four closures a day in the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest Hospitality Market Monitor by CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners, which is down from an average of eight a day in 2023.
Despite the market being down by 2.5 per cent year-on-year, with one in 40 venues shutting in the past 12 months, the report signals a slow yet positive return to “cautious confidence” for the hospitality industry as cost of living pressures begin to ease.