Sun 8th Oct 2023 - Exclusive: Bill’s FY turnover tops £100m, St Peter’s Brewery confirms Curious and Wild Beer acquisitions Exclusive – Bill’s FY turnover tops £100m, to learn lessons on expansion: Bill’s, the Richard Caring-backed restaurant group, posted turnover of £103.8m (2021: £74.3m) in the year to 1 January 2023 as it continued “to bounce back from the pandemic”. Adjusted Ebitda for the year stood at £5.5m (2021: £7.6m), while pre-tax losses widened in the period from £1.34m in 2021 to £12.31m. The business said: “Bill’s continued to bounce back from the pandemic with a substantial increase in turnover to £104m on a reduced estate size of 51 sites (2 January 2022 – 62 sites). This upwards trajectory is encouraging given the pressures faced by both consumers and our supply chain from unprecedented inflation. Bill’s was able to maintain competitively priced offerings throughout the period without a significant reduction in gross margin at 77% (2 January 2022 80%). This was achieved through sound supply chain agreements. The business is in a better long-term position having freed itself of a number of poorly performing sites and has consolidated its central overheads to manage a more profitable reduced estate.” Bill’s had an onerous lease provision of £4.2m for 25 sites. The now 46-strong chain also refinanced its banking facilities with HSBC in March this year to the tune of £38m, while Caring provided £750,000 of extra funding. In the six months to the end of June 2023, Bill’s delivered like-for-like sales from continuing operations up 4.5% at £45.3m, while underlying earnings swung from a loss of £100,000 to a profit of £2.45m. At its peak, it had more than 80 restaurants. Tom James, managing director of Bill’s, told last month’s Propel Multi-Club Conference that the business was coming off the back of 12 months of “really good growth” and hitting its targets after consolidating in 2022. Asked whether the brand was in a position to return to the expansion trail. James said: “I answer that very carefully. Because I think what has happened over the last 12 months is we’ve now built a platform and a foundation, and the core estate delivering what they’ve done over a sustained 12 months is really, really positive. Much like last September, we’re going to take the next six weeks to plan the next two years, three years, and what that looks like. And there will certainly be growth strategies from that. I think there are a number of lessons that we’ve learned from when Bill’s went from three sites up to 80 in terms of how important it is to go into the right locations and the right properties as well. I think you can get obsessed with hitting a number,and say you want to open 20 sites a year, but some of those locations might not be right for your business.” Bill’s features in the Who’s Who of UK Food and Beverage, one of six databases available exclusively to Premium subscribers. The latest edition features full profiles of 730 of the UK’s top food and beverage operators, listed in alphabetical order. The companies have their most recent results reported as well as broader information around Ebitda, plans and trading style available. The database merges Companies House information, interviews and other public information to provide an easy to reference and exhaustive guide to the sector. 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 jo.charity@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription. Exclusive – St Peter’s Brewery confirms acquisition of Curious Brewery and Wild Beer Co: One of the UK’s first craft brewers, the Suffolk-based St Peter’s, has confirmed to Propel that is has acquired the Curious Brewery and Wild Beer Co businesses, for an undisclosed sum. As revealed by Propel last week, St Peter’s has acquired Curious Brewery, which includes the Curious and Wild beer brands. St Peter’s chief executive Derek Jones, who has more than 20 years of global beer experience, including at Molson Coors and SABMiller, has taken over the helm at Curious Brewery with immediate effect. Jones told Propel: “This is an incredibly exciting new chapter for St Peter’s as the company builds a powerful portfolio of brands. It will have St Peter’s iconic bottles and multiple award-winning beers now sitting alongside extraordinary beers such as Curious Brew and Wild IPA, to name just a few of the great products in the Curious Brewery stable.” The Curious brand was established in 2010. In spring 2021, Risk Capital Partners, Luke Johnson’s private equity firm, acquired Curious Brewery from English wine company Chapel Down. Based in Kent, Curious was established in 2011 by Chapel Down and offered four core brews: a lager, a session IPA, a cider and a porter. The change of ownership followed a multimillion-pound development of a new brewery in 2019. Located in Ashford, it was constructed alongside a visitor centre and a 120-cover bar and restaurant. Earlier this year, the business acquired the brands of Wild Beer Co, the Somerset brewer, out of administration. St Peter’s was established in 1996 in Suffolk by John Murphy, who developed and ran the business for 23 years, and is currently undergoing expansion. It was acquired by a group of private individuals for an undisclosed sum at the start of 2021.