Xp Factory (LSE:XPF), owner of the Escape Hunt and Boom Battle Bar leisure brands, reported underlying group revenue up 3% to £59.6m for the year ended 29 March, against £57.8m the prior year.
Pre-IFRS-16 group adjusted EBITDA fell to £5.5m from £6.6m, while adjusted operating profit dropped to £0.8m from £3.4m.
Net debt rose to £5.9m at year-end from £4.9m a year earlier, after investment in four new Escape Hunt sites during the year and shortly after.
Escape Hunt owner-operated revenue grew 11% to £15.8m, with UK like-for-like sales up 4.6% and site-level EBITDA margins of 42%, down from 44%. Boom's underlying revenue rose 2% to £42.8m, but UK like-for-like sales fell 8%, against a wider competitive socialising market decline of 9%, according to the CGA RSM Hospitality tracker. Boom's site-level margin held at 17%, down just one percentage point despite roughly £1.5m of additional labour costs from National Insurance and National Living Wage increases.
"2026 was a year of resilience rather than progress", said chairman James van den Bergh, noting Boom its margin decline to less than two percentage points while several competitors failed.
The company has signed a £20m revolving credit facility with HSBC and cut £1m from head office costs, with full benefit expected in the 2027 financial year. Three new Escape Hunt sites opened after year-end in Colchester, Wandsworth and Birmingham Cannon Street, with a Cardiff site due to open in October as UK site number 28.
The board said early Christmas trading indications, including December business-to-business bookings up 15% year-on-year, support expectations that full-year performance will be in line with market forecasts.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Xp Factory grew revenue 3% to £59.6m but saw adjusted EBITDA fall 17% to £5.5m as Boom faced an 8% UK like-for-like sales decline in a weakening competitive socialising market. The company offset roughly £1.5m in labour cost inflation to hold Boom's site margin at 17%, while Escape Hunt accelerated with 11% owner-operated revenue growth and 4.6% like-for-like sales gains. Management secured a £20m credit facility and cut £1m in head office costs, signalling defensive positioning rather than growth momentum.
Xp Factory's margin compression—adjusted EBITDA margin fell from 11.4% to 9.2%—reflects structural headwinds in the socialising leisure market that cost-cutting alone cannot offset. Escape Hunt's stronger performance (11% revenue growth, 4.6% like-for-like sales) offers a partial offset, but Boom's 8% like-for-like decline, though better than the 9% market decline, signals the company is losing share in its larger revenue base (£42.8m of £59.6m group revenue). The £20m credit facility and £1m head office savings provide near-term liquidity, but net debt rose to £5.9m despite modest revenue growth, limiting financial flexibility for the four new Escape Hunt sites opened post-year-end.
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