Adventure Bar Group to open new site in Cardiff

Adventure Bar Group is set to open a new Tonight Josephine cocktail and wine bar in Cardiff’s St Mary Street in March 2022, with an unrestricted capacity of 294.

Parent group Nightcap said it had a further 25 sites in legal negotiations or under offer across several of its brands, with several new leases expected to be entered into before the end of March. The Tonight Josephine brand has three sites in London and one in Birmingham.

In a trading update for the 26 weeks ended 26 December 2021, Nightcap's unaudited group net sales were £15.5m for the first half of the 2022 financial year, resulting in a 46.2% net sales increase on the same period in 2019 and a 22.4% like for like increase compared to the same period in 2019.

Nightcap said that although more than 7,500 bookings for the Christmas period across the group were initially cancelled, over 70% of these bookings were re-scheduled to take place between January and March 2022.

Sarah Willingham, chief executive of Nightcap, said: “As we approach our first anniversary since our IPO, I could not be prouder of the entire team across our three operating businesses. To achieve 46.2% growth in net sales and 22.4% on a like for like basis represents a monumental effort under any circumstances, not least during a time when new Covid-19 guidelines negatively affected the important Christmas trading period.

"With the first new Adventure Bar Group site lease signed and a further 25 sites under offer or in legal negotiations across the Group, we are well positioned for significant expansion as we enter 2022 with sufficient cash reserves of approximately £9.4m for the group's operations and to execute our growth strategy."