Mon 8th Jul 2024 - Mission Mars FY revenue tops £71m, Rudy’s H1 FY24 lfl sales up 17% Mission Mars FY revenue tops £71m, Rudy’s H1 FY24 lfl sales up 17%: Mission Mars, the Business Growth Fund-backed operator of Albert’s Schloss and Rudy’s Pizza Napoletana, has reported strong levels of growth across both brands, with group revenue to the end of September 2023 (FY23) of £71.1m (FY22: £47.1m). Its Albert's Schloss brand contributed £32.3m (FY22: £21.6m) and Rudy's £29.3m (FY22: £16.1m). On a like-for-like basis, comparing its Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool venues, Albert's Schloss delivered growth of 6% in FY23, while Rudy's delivered 24%. Both brands were around 15% ahead of their comparable market segments in the Peach Coffer Tracker for the same period. The company, which has 32 venues across the UK including four Albert's Schloss bars and 26 Rudy's Pizza Napoletana, said group adjusted Ebitda for the period was £8.7m (FY22: £5.2m). The company, which also operates Albert’s Schenke in Liverpool and the Zumhof Biergarten in Birmingham, said that FY24 trade to the end of the first half has remained at “pleasing levels” with Albert's Schloss delivering record revenue totalling £18.9m (FY23: £16.2m) and Rudy's delivering record first-half revenue of £19.9m (FY23 £12.1m). Like-for-like performance continues in a similar trend to FY23 with Albert's Schloss up 5% and Rudy's up 17%. The business said that third-quarter trade has continued with similar levels of growth seen across both brands. Albert's Schloss, which sells more than 1.2 million pints of Bavarian lager each year, opened its debut London venue last Thursday (4 July), in Shaftesbury Avenue. Rudy's Pizzeria, which sells more than two million pizzas, has a further three pizzerias confirmed to open in the fourth quarter, bringing the total openings to nine in FY24 with all pizzerias showing “encouraging growth”. Rudy's said it aims to open a similar number of pizzerias in FY25. Commenting on the FY23 performance, Roy Ellis, chief executive of Mission Mars said: “While the sector continues to face a number of challenges, our team continued to build on previous year successes by delivering an industry leading group guest experience score of 78% in FY23 and delivering further improvement to 82% in the first half of FY24. We continue to focus on reducing colleague turnover and I am pleased to report our colleague retention rates have achieved record levels for the third successive year. Our Best Companies results remain strong with half of our venues achieving a three-star World Class rating (Best Companies). While pleased with the progress, it is clear that we still have a number of opportunities to progress on our journey to become a world class employer. Our continued strong trading over a sustained period gives us confidence that both our Albert's Schloss and Rudy's Pizza Napoletana brands are well set to deliver growth and are likely to trade successfully in all parts of the UK. I am pleased to have further progressed with our plan to open nine Rudy's Napoletana in FY24 and Albert's Schloss London has made a very encouraging start. We continue to search for the best locations and currently we have eight new Rudy's Napoletana currently in legals and negotiating on a number of potential Albert's Schloss locations.” Mission Mars features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, which will feature 947 companies when the next update is sent to Premium Club members on Friday (12 July). Its turnover of £71.1m is the 140th highest in the database. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.