Ten-pin titan Hollywood Bowl Group hopes to score a strike with investors with profit growth
UK ten-pin giant Hollywood Bowl Group is flirting with the idea of returning a surplus to investors this morning after revealing a rise in annual revenues in a trading update today.
The bowling operator reported like-for-like revenue growth of 1.8 per cent in the 12 months to the end of September this year, adding that it expects pre-tax profit will have grown by 10 per cent over the same period.
Shares jumped more than four per cent in early morning trading, as the group said it would return the excess cash from its profits to shareholders, providing it decides not to snap up any more expected short-term acquisitions this year.
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Hollywood Bowl Group’s chief financial officer, Laurence Keen, told Morning Wire the company was “very pleased with the results”, as it looks to continue its long-term investments.
Keen said: “Throwing a metal object at 10 wooden sticks is pretty simple, and people only use us on average 1.3/1.4 times a year, but that is fine with us because we have such a wide appeal.”
The group’s results come in the wake of a modest expansion programme which has seen the operator open up an average of two new outlets a year, most recently in Dagenham and Yeovil.