Wed 16th Mar 2016 - Draft House reports surge in turnover and Ebitda, outlines expansion strategy for outside London Draft House reports surge in turnover and Ebitda, outlines expansion strategy for outside London: Draft House, the London craft beer operator led by Charlie McVeigh and backed by Luke Johnson, has reported a surge in turnover and Ebitda as it looks to accelerate expansion. The company saw turnover jump 28% to £6,121,408 in the year ended 25 October 2015, compared with 4,787,233 the year before. Adjusted Ebitda leapt 58% to £633,576, compared with £400,499 the previous year. Like-for-like sales increased 4% and McVeigh told Propel all sites open for more than one year were showing growth in profit “with most double digit”. Pre-tax profit fell slightly to £91,521, compared with £124,585 the previous year due to “historical balance sheet adjustments dating back to 2004”. McVeigh said the company was looking to build a 20-strong estate by the end of 2018 and was now targeting sites outside London partly due to the “crazy” rent levels in the capital. Draft House is targeting large towns surrounding the M25 and currently has a site under offer in an undisclosed location. He said: “We’ve got organic growth, new sites coming through last year and more to come this year. We’ve made some significant investment over the last three years, including in head office with the recruitment of a finance director and a marketing manager. I’m really happy these investments are starting to pay off. Our goal is to be the best pub company in orbital London. We are looking at towns such as Basingstoke, Bracknell, Milton Keynes, Slough and Woking. We feel these towns have a lot of workers who are aware of what is going on in London but have not got what is happening in London. Our aim is to bring that to these towns. We are not really looking at the likes of Brighton.” McVeigh added the company was looking for sites of between 3,000 square feet and 7,000 square feet, similar in size to its new Chancery Lane site, which is due to open next month. The 6,500 square foot site is its largest to date and “double the size of any other”. The opening will be followed by its Old Street Roundabout site in the Bower development in May. McVeigh said the company should have ten sites by the end of October “and might try to do one more before Christmas”. Draft House has a further pipeline of openings with four or five in 2017 and another five or six sites in 2018. “Our objective for then is to have sales of £20m and Ebitda of £3m,” added McVeigh. He said its new career development path launched in November was already starting to see some good results, particularly with staff retention. Draft House is currently recruiting for positions across the board for its two new sites and anyone interested can email work@drafthouse.co.uk