Ed’s Easy Diner results for the year ended 30 September 2013 show it achieving rapid growth with a strong pipeline as it delivers its strategy to operate and open new diners in high footfall premium shopping centres, transport interchanges such as railway stations and airports, and busy tourism centres. The company anticipates continued growth of a financially successful operation which will generate good returns for investors as well as opportunities for staff to develop and grow with the business.
Ed’s in mid-2009 was a small business operating three diners, and has been built to a much larger business operating 23 diners at 31 December, together with 4 “Shake” and “Shakes ‘N’ Dogs” stands, located across the country.
Ed’s has a five year strategic plan to create a truly national brand, as well as developing opportunities for significant growth overseas. The pipeline of new locations continues to build.
Results
Total sales increased strongly for the second year in succession by 87% to £17.6m (2012: £9.4m) driven by a mix of underlying improvement and an accelerated opening programme. Like for like sales were up 2.5%. Group Ebitda rose 121% to £2.24m from £1.01m in the prior year.
£7 million was invested in growing the estate, which continues to be highly cash generative. Cash generated from operations is matching the pace of increase in capital expenditure. To finance this level of investment in addition to £2.5 million generated from operations, investor loans have increased by approximately £2.2 million and utilised nearly £2.5 million of bank debt, as part of an overall facility of £4.5 million.
Customers and Service
In the year under review, Ed’s served almost 1.8m customers in its diners, as well as an estimated 100,000 at the Shake and Shakes ‘N’ Dogs Stands. Ed’s makes a significant investment in customer service both in staff training and also looking into mystery diner reports and customer feedback.
Membership of Ed’s Club at the end of September 2013 approached 250,000, nearly doubling the number of members during the financial year, and at the end of December 2013 amounted to 285,000. A significant number of customers are regulars and it seems reasonable to estimate that at least 20% of the customer base are now members of our loyalty club.
New Sites
There is a substantial site pipeline for 2014 and beyond. Diner openings planned for the next few months include Lord Street in Liverpool, Monk’s Cross in York and Victoria Place at Victoria Station. This will bring the total of new diners opened since the beginning of the new financial year to 7 and it is hoped to open up to a further 8 diners before the end of 2014.
There are also 6 diner sites either where heads of terms have been issued or are “in legals” for the first half of 2015 with other exciting opportunities being negotiated at the moment. In addition, there are sites where heads of terms have been agreed for 2016.
Future Prospects
The five year strategic plan anticipates building an estate of in excess of 100 diners by September 2018.
Stephen Greene, Chairman said:
“This has been another excellent performance both financially and operationally. We have substantially grown the business and laid the foundations for further rapid growth. We are well funded, have a strong pipeline and the systems to manage our next phase of development. We look forward to delivering another year of progress in 2014.”