Losses leap at Inventive Leisure parent company

ONE off costs amounting to £6m and interest charges of £8m combined to send the parent company of vodka bar chain Revolution further into the red.

The Ashton-under-Lyne company has been owned since 2006 by private equity firm Alchemy Partners, when it backed a £42.5m take-private deal.

It now has 70 bars nationwide, the majority (65) are the Revolution brand, while the remainder are in the Revolucion de Cuba rum bar concept, In total the group employs 2,700 people.

Newly-filed accounts for Caspian Top Co, the parent company for Inventive Leisure shows that while sales rose 5% to £111.6m in the year to the end of June, losses surged from £2.9m to £11.4m.

At an operating level the company, which last year bade farewell to its co-founder and former chief executive Roy Ellis, made a loss of £3.2m, compared with a profit of £4.7m the year before.

Onerous leases on several sites accounted for £3.3m of the £6.1m exceptional costs, while there was also £1.4m of restructuring costs and a £1.3m impairment of fixed assets.

During the year net debt increased from £67.5m to £74.4m.

Post year end the group refinanced its bank debt, and agreed a £15.5m five-year term loan and £2.5m revolving credit facility on December 6 2013. In addition the holders of its loan notes and PIK notes – worth £26.8m and £18.3m respectively – have made an undertaking that these will not be redeemed earlier than June 1 2019.

After the departure of Roy Ellis Inventive Leisure is now run by Mark McQuater, the former boss of the Barracuda bar chain, who was appointed in March 2013.

Alchemy did explore options to sell the business in 2012, but later had second thoughts. The abortive process cost the company £700,000 in fees.