One of the UK’s fastest-growing restaurant operators will be opening in Ripon and bringing 25 new jobs to the city.
Loungers UK, which owns the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, is currently refurbishing a building in Market Place, next to Ripon Town Hall, and the opening of the premises will add to the Bristol-based company’s portfolio of approximately 150 sites in England and Wales.
Gemma Irwin, community manager for The Lounges, told the Stray Ferret:
“We will recruit around 25 local people and hope to quickly become part of Ripon’s community.”
With refurbishment work currently under way to transform the former NatWest bank premises, an opening date is yet to be confirmed.
The premises acquired by the Loungers Group, is in a prime location next to Ripon Town Hall
The Ripon opening is part of a growth strategy announced by the company last year, in which it said it is:
“Targeting 25 new site openings per annum over the medium term, of which approximately 20 are expected to be Lounges and approximately five are expected to be Cosy Clubs.”
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The company, founded in 2002, was valued at £185 million before its listing on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM) which lists smaller growing businesses.
With the hospitality sector hit hard by the coronavirus lockdown in March, which saw all of its restaurants temporarily closed, Loungers secured a £15million revolving credit facility from its banks for an 18-month period, designed to assist the company during the covid 19 disruption and help it if the pandemic impacts sales into next year.
Loungers was founded by friends Dave Reid, Alex Reilley and Jake Bishop, who wanted to create a neighbourhood café-bar that they would want to go into themselves.
The trio, all of whom had previous experience of working in the restaurant and bar trade, opened their first venture in Bristol in premises formerly occupied by an opticians.
Over the past 18 years, the Loungers Group has become an all-day operator of scale in the UK and has outperformed the wider UK hospitality sector over the past three years in terms of growth.
