Sun 30th Sep 2018 - Five Guys secures £100m banking facility to support expansion in Britain, full-year UK turnover increases 42% to £122m Five Guys secures £100m banking facility to support expansion in Britain, full-year UK turnover increases 42% to £122m: Better burger brand Five Guys has reported it has secured a £100m banking facility to support its expansion plans in the UK and Europe. The new facility was revealed as accounts for Five Guys JV showed UK turnover increased 42% to £121,965,000 for the year ending 31 December 2017, compared with £86,194,000 the year before. Like-for-like sales growth in the UK was 2.3%. Group turnover was up to £150,978,000, compared with £90,426,000 the previous year. Adjusted Ebitda rose to £11,934,000, compared with £10,490,00 the year before. UK Ebitda was up 60% to £18,855,000, compared with £11,812,000 the previous year. Net losses increased to £19,928,000, compared with £13,336,000 the previous year, driven by the cost of increased expansion and the cost of debt. During the period, the company opened 29 stores – 20 in the UK and nine in Europe, which took the estate to 79 in Britain and 91 across the entire group. In their report accompanying the accounts, the directors stated: “The directors continue to believe there are strong growth prospects in the premium burger market and intend to continue the rapid roll-out of Five Guys in the UK and mainland Europe. The group continued its rapid expansion in the UK, France and Spain and also opened the first stores in Germany. In 2018, the group secured a £100m bank facility from Goldman Sachs to aid UK expansion and to start repaying shareholder debt. Five Guys operations in Europe can draw on these funds as each territory turns profitable. This replaces our previous £45m facility and will significantly reduce our blended cost of debt. The company successfully partnered with Deliveroo in 2017, allowing customers to order Five Guys from the comfort of their homes. The majority of the UK stores are now offering delivery. In 2018 we will be rolling it out in France and Spain. The company delivered a strong 2017 and we are confident of our growth plans going forward both in the UK and the EU. Our plans for 2018 call for the most new store openings in our five-year history. During the year 20 stores opened in the UK bringing the total number of stores at the year-end to 79. New openings during the year created 868 jobs, increasing our contribution to the UK economy. We have 20 stores in the pipeline for 2018. We continue to pay above minimum wage and provide continuous training within stores, encouraging internal promotion. The UK loss for the period of £3,926,000 (2016: £6,212,000) driven by the cost of successful openings of £2,667,000. (2016: £2,741,000), financing of debt £8,131,000 (2016: £7,050,000) and long-term incentive plans provisions. Ebitda growth (in the UK) is in excess of sales growth due to a higher proportion of mature restaurants, greater economies of scale and improved efficiency. The first store outside the UK opened to great anticipation in Paris in August 2016. In December 2016 we opened our flagship store on the Champs Elysees, which is the largest, and highest volume, Five Guys globally. During 2017, we opened our first stores outside Paris, in Lille and Aix-en-Provence. At the end of 2017 we had six French stores. We have eight openings in the pipeline for 2018. In October 2016. Our first store opened in Spain, in the flagship location of Gran Via, Madrid: During 2017 we opened three new stores in Spain, and in 2018 will be extending the pipeline outside of Madrid to Barcelona, Granada and Valencia. We have ten Spanish openings in the pipeline for 2018. The first two stores successfully opened in Germany in December 2017 – a high street location in Frankfurt and a shopping centre in Essen. We have a further eight German openings in the pipeline for 2018. The group will build on its European presence by continuing its new store roll-out in the UK, France, Spain and Germany and will be expanding into Portugal in 2018/19.” Five Guys, which was founded in Virginia in the US in 1986 by the Murrell family, opened its first UK site in Covent Garden in 2013.