Hollywood Bowl records strike for sales over summer holidays

BRITAIN’S largest 10-pin bowling operator Hollywood Bowl posted a knockout performance after international travel restrictions kept more families in the UK over the summer.

Hollywood Bowl said trading had been “exceptional” through the school holiday period, with like-for-like sales 50pc higher in August than they were two years ago and revenue hitting £20.1m.

For the period since Hollywood Bowl was able to reopen on May 17, like-forlike revenue was up 29pc on 2019 levels. This is despite some Covid restrictions remaining in place until July 19, including mask guidelines.

Hollywood Bowl said its total revenue for the year to the end of September came in at £74.6m, compared with £79.5m a year earlier, which had included five months of trading until pandemic restrictions were introduced.

Stephen Burns, chief executive of Hollywood Bowl, said: “I am delighted at the pace and strength of our recovery since reopening.”

It comes after Mr Burns said earlier this year that Britons were “desperate to go out with their families and not go out for another walk”.

Hollywood Bowl runs 64 centres across the UK, largely in out-of-town leisure parks and retail parks. These are made up of 61 Hollywood Bowl bowling alleys and three Puttstars mini-golf centres. It is planning to open between 14 and 18 more centres within the next three years.

Shares in the company were largely flat yesterday. Despite making gains in

recent months, Hollywood Bowl is still trading around 15pc lower than it was before the pandemic hit.

Other companies in the industry are also suffering from depressed share prices, including Ten Entertainment Group, which is down 13pc since February 2020, even though it recently said it enjoyed “the most successful summer trading period in the group’s history”.

Ten Entertainment said it was on track to beat expectations for its full financial year after sales spiked more than 40pc in the three months to the middle of September.