Record half year for Hollywood Bowl

The tenpin bowling chain, which has centres at Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield; Merry Hill and Shrewsbury, reported revenue up 8.1 per cent to a record £119.2 million with pre-tax profits up five per cent to £21.9m.

The group had 71 centres in the UK at the end of the half year which included completingrefurbishments of Hollywood Bowl centres in Watford Woodside, Stockton and Cardiff.

It bought, re-branded and refurbished a centre in Lincoln and installed solar panels at two centres.

A 72nd centre – Hollywood Bowl Dundee – opened in May.

Hollywood Bowl also has 11 centres in Canada.

The group has a strong balance sheet and cash generative business model supporting investment in future growth with the new centre pipeline continuing to build across the UK and Canada.

Two more centres are due to open in the UK and one in Canada in the second half and 2024-2025 and the group is well positioned to eventually grow to more than 130 centres.

Chief executive Stephen Burns said: "We are pleased to have welcomed so many families, friends and colleagues to our centres in the first half, demonstrating the continued demand for high-quality, family-friendly leisure experiences at affordable prices, particularly against the backdrop of higher living expenses.

"I am extremely grateful to our excellent team members whose hard work has resulted in even longer customer dwell times and higher satisfaction score. We are proud to invest in our team and to once again be recognised as a top company to work for.

"We continue to expect further, modest like-for-like growth, even with the very strong prior year comparative, as a result of our customer-led innovation and investment in our profitable growth strategy. We are confident in the outlook for Hollywood Bowl and in our ability to capture the longer-term opportunity to grow our estate to over 130 centres in the next 10 years."