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Tue 20th Feb 2024 - Update: Nightcap acquires The Piano Works |
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Nightcap acquires The Piano Works business, recent trading “been far softer than expected”: Nightcap – owner of the Cocktail Club, the Adventure Bar Group, Dirty Martini and the Barrio Familia group of 46 bars – has acquired The Piano Works, the live entertainment concept currently operating at the company’s Barrio Covent Garden venue and in Farringdon, London. Stamp Entertainment Limited, a recently incorporated 100% owned subsidiary of Nightcap, has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire certain of the assets of TDC Concepts – the operator of ‘The Piano Works’ live music entertainment concept. Nightcap is paying a total consideration of £200,000. The Piano Works acquisition was completed following a pre-pack administration process by TDC Concepts. It is intended that the current directors of TDC Concepts will become minority shareholders in Stamp and a further announcement on this will be made in due course once the terms are finalised. The Piano Works was launched in 2015 in a large Victorian warehouse site in Farringdon, London, and this bar and entertainment venue is being acquired under acquisition. It is an interactive live music entertainment concept, typically involving pianists, vocalists and other musicians performing an audience curated playlist, accompanied by a high-quality food, drinks and cocktail offering. Since November 2023, The Piano Works has had a successful residency within Nightcap’s Barrio Covent Garden venue. Nightcap said the residency resulted in a significant uplift in revenues compared to its forecasts under the Barrio brand for the four-week festive period ended 31 December 2023. This made a positive contribution to Nightcap’s revenue performance in the 13 weeks ended 31 December 2023, as indicated in Nightcap’s announcement of 10 January 2024. Nightcap intends The Piano Works to become a permanent fixture at the Covent Garden site and for The Piano Works concept to be the rolled out along with the other successful brands in the Nightcap portfolio. In conjunction with The Piano Works acquisition and to provide working capital to Stamp, Nightcap has raised a total of £1m, through a subscription of 16,666,666 of new ordinary shares in the company at 6p per share, being a premium of approximately 22% to Nightcap’s last closing mid-market share price on 19 February 2024. Nightcap has also agreed to amend and restate the terms of the convertible loan notes issued by the company in June 2023. Sarah Willingham, chief executive of Nightcap, said: “The Piano Works is another excellent addition to our group. I very much look forward to the future of this concept. It adds a whole new area of expertise to Nightcap and a different entertainment offer, bringing live music to our customers. We have known The Piano Works concept for a long time and look forward to working with the founders and their dedicated staff. After the very successful residency in our Barrio bar in Covent Garden at Christmas we are delighted to be able to partner with them and provide the opportunities to bring this great entertainment concept to other cities across the UK.” Alan Lorrimer, founder of The Piano Works, said: “Over the past eight years we have loved creating a communal and immersive experience for our many guests singing along to their favourite soundtracks. The past four years have been the toughest I have known in my forty years in hospitality. We survived covid, but when the sale of our Leicester Square venue fell through, it was the last financial straw. We transferred into Covent Garden thanks to a great collaboration with the Nightcap team. We had an excellent Christmas which proved we could work really well together. We now have the potential to expand The Piano Works and prove that customers across the country will love our immersive audience requested live music experience.” Based on unaudited management accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023, TDC Concepts generated revenue of approximately £4.6m, site Ebitda of approximately £600,000, Ebitda after head office costs of approximately £100,000 and profit before tax of nil. The TDC Concept’s Farringdon site had an unaudited total assets value of approximately £700,000 as at 30 June 2023. At the same time, Nightcap has reported that since the start of 2024 its trading been far softer than expected, in line with reports from across the hospitality sector. It said: “The group faces headwinds from ongoing rail strikes, the continuation of the cost of living crisis, above inflation increases to business rates and other costs, and the impact of the forthcoming increase to the National Living Wage. In addition, as announced with the acquisition of the Adventure Bar Group on 4 May 2021, the lease on Bar Elba, held in a 50:50 owned joint venture entity, contained a break clause which has recently been exercised pending the re-development of the building. After a period of negotiation to agree a short-term extension to the lease, the Bar Elba lease will come to an end on 24 February 2024. Finally, whilst the board is expecting the integration of both Dirty Martini and The Piano Works to be fully completed during FY 2024, it is now anticipating greater than expected integration costs to be incurred before the end of FY 2024. As a result of the above factors and their impact on the second half of FY 2024 in particular, the board expects that, whilst revenues for FY 2024 will be in line with expectations, adjusted Ebitda is expected to be in the range of £2m to £2.5m.”
Knoops chief executive William Gordon-Harris to speak at first Propel Multi-Club Conference of 2024, open for bookings: William Gordon-Harris, chief executive of Knoops, will be among the speakers at the first Propel Multi-Club Conference of 2024. More than 350 people have booked for the conference, which takes place on Thursday, 21 March, at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London’s Kensington, and is open for bookings. Gordon-Harris discusses the growth of the luxury hot chocolate shop concept, its unique offer and how it plans to “create the new Starbucks for quality barista hot and cold chocolate drinks”. Operators can book up to three free places per company while Premium Club members who are operators can book up to four free places. To book, email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com.
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