Loungers opens 150th site, updates on pipeline: Loungers, the operator of neighbourhood, café-bar-restaurants trading under the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, is today opening its 150thsite – Fosso Lounge in Wells, Somerset – which brings it to 125 Lounges and 25 Cosy Clubs. The company stated: “Since the beginning of the 2019 calendar year, the group has opened 11 new sites. New Lounges have been opened across a wide range of locations in Bangor, Manchester, Sheffield, Aylesbury, Street, Southsea and Barnsley, together with new Cosy Clubs in Norwich and Portsmouth. In addition, the group’s 25th Cosy Club opened on 11 June 2019 in Cardiff Bay, the second Cosy Club in Wales’ capital city. The pipeline for new sites is strong and well advanced, with the group remaining on track to open 25 new sites (comprising approximately 20 Lounges and five Cosy Clubs) in its financial year to 19 April 2020. As one of the UK’s few expanding hospitality businesses, Loungers is seeing some exciting opportunities in the current property market. The group continues to trade well in the current environment and Loungers’ home-from-home, relaxed customer proposition – offering great food and drink, all day, to an increasingly broad demographic – continues to resonate with customers. Over the course of the summer, the group will open Lounge cafe-bars in locations such as Abergavenny, Kings Lynn, Lakeside, Huntingdon and Newbury. The group is also due to open Cosy Clubs in Durham and Plymouth as it expands its geographic footprint nationwide. Each new site creates around 30 new jobs, representing around 750 new jobs at the group this year alone. With a strong pipeline of additional sites in place, Loungers plans to continue its managed expansion, bringing its suburban “third space” lifestyle culture and hospitality to many new locations and communities, with a target of 25 new openings per financial year.” Nick Collins, chief executive of Loungers, said: “Reaching our 150th site is an exciting milestone in the Loungers’ journey as we progress our expansion plans for at least 400 Lounges and 100 Cosy Clubs nationwide. Whilst 150 sites represent a sizeable business, the focus on evolution of design, menu development, operational detail, our people and their communities has never been stronger. Wells in Somerset is a fitting location for our 150th site in taking us back to our roots in the West Country. Likewise, our 25th Cosy Club in Cardiff Bay further consolidates our strong presence in Wales and is particularly exciting as it is the first time we have opened two Cosy Clubs in one city. We continue to be impressed with the broad demographic appeal of both brands, further underpinning our conviction in the potential scale of the business.” 

Everyman hires Elizabeth Lake as CFO: Everyman Media Group has appointed Elizabeth Lake as chief financial officer with effect from 16 September 2019. The company stated: “Elizabeth, aged 51, brings extensive financial and commercial experience to the management team at the company. For the past three years, Elizabeth has been the finance director at Science in Sport plc and prior to that was the finance director at Hugo Boss UK and Ireland. Elizabeth has also worked at listed companies Marks and Spencer, Pearson and Thomson Reuters. Elizabeth is ACA qualified having trained at Coopers and Lybrand.” Paul Wise, chairman of Everyman said: “Elizabeth has a strong, relevant background and experience in the AIM listed business as well as larger multi-site commercial operations. This will be of immense value to our chief executive and the senior management team at Everyman as we continue our successful growth story, opening new venues and developing our existing business.”