Exclusive – Loungers hires Kate Eastwood as MD of its Lounge concept, Justin Carter promoted to group MD: Cafe bar operator Loungers has hired Kate Eastwood, formerly of Fuller’s and Revolution Bars Group, as the new managing director of its Lounge concept. Eastwood joins the Nick Collins-led Loungers from Fuller’s, where she has been an operations director for the past four years and responsible for over 100 sites in London and across the south of England. Previous to that she spent more than six years at Revolution Bars Group, including time as its sales and marketing director. She has also had stints at Bramwell Pub Company, Laurel Pub Company and Whitbread. At the same time, current Lounge managing director Justin Carter has been promoted to the new role of group managing director of Loungers. Effective from today (8 April), Carter, who has been in the business for nine years and was also formerly an operations director at Fuller’s, will take overall responsibility for all three of the group’s brands – Lounge, Cosy Club and Brightside. Carter, who previously founded the Elbow Room chain which he ran for 13 years before selling it in 2008, initially joined Loungers as its chief operating officer in 2015, before being promoted to Lounge managing director two and a half years later. The business has also promoted David Matthews to Lounge operations director (North), following two successful years as a regional operations manager driving the “expansion of the company’s Northern frontier”. Last August, the business appointed Lucy Knowles as the new managing director of its Cosy Club brand. Knowles previously held the same role at London bar chain Corney & Barrow, later joining SSP, the operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, as group marketing director. Collins, chief executive of Loungers plc, said: “I am delighted for both Justin and David and would like to wish a very warm welcome to Kate. We have got to know Kate well over the last few months are excited about the impact she will have leading the Lounge business. As the business continues to grow, it’s critical we have the best organisational structure in place to protect and enhance both our culture and the hospitality we provide. The creation of the group managing role provides a great platform for Justin to influence our current three brands in their different stages of evolution. It is also really pleasing that in David’s promotion to ops director, we have another great internal progression story. David joined the business in 2019 as an ops manager, and over the last five years has had a major influence on our performance and growth. We are fortunate that our rapid growth creates fantastic career development opportunities; our goal is to be the number one choice for anyone looking at a career in the UK hospitality industry.” In January, Loungers executive chairman Alex Reilley said it feels like the business is only just getting started and “there is so much more for us to go after”, as the company opened its 250th site in total. He said: “We’re on track to open 34 sites in the current financial year, which will be a record for us and will involve the creation of more than 1,000 jobs. In the longer term, we believe there is scope for more than 600 Lounges alone across the UK.” At the end of last month, the company opened its 218th Lounge site, Sarto Lounge in Sidcup. It will open its latest site – the Barolo Lounge in Yeovil’s High Street – on Wednesday (10 April).