Everyman boss confident Britons WILL still flock to the cinema

Everyman Media Group reported a decline in its interim losses in its first half results as it greeted “healthy” customer numbers and said it expects to “at least meet” market expectations for the full year and beyond.

The upmarket cinema group’s pre-tax losses fell to £798,000 in the period, down from £9.2m a year ago, on sales of £40.7m, up from £7.7m.

The group said, “Top Gun: Maverick performed well at the end of May, with Everyman receiving 5.8 percent market share of gross revenue so far.

“Other strong titles were The Batman in March and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in May.”

The company swung to and adjusted EBITDA of £7.5 million over the period, up from a loss of £1.4 million.

The cinemas usually have a small number of screens compared to rivals, comfortable sofa-like seats and features such as food and drinks delivered to seats.

Alex Scrimgeour, Everyman boss, said: ‘The cinema will always be an important part of the UK’s fabric as a place to entertain, and has historically remained so during tougher economic conditions and recession.

‘We are convinced that our unique Everyman hospitality brand will remain as relevant as ever.’

Everyman said comparing admissions to the same period in 2021 was challenging due to Covid-related shutdowns.

But compared to the first half of 2019, admissions were up 20 percent, driven by organic growth and the opening of nine new sites.

There were 300,000 extra admissions compared to the first half of 2019.

Scrimgeour, said: “The first half of the fiscal year has been a period of progress on all fronts, with healthy take-up growth and strong per capita spending, indicating that we are now back on track after the turbulence of In recent years.

“Despite reduced film production due to the effect of low production during the pandemic, we have enjoyed three of the ten highest ever theatrical releases in the past 12 months.

“Looking ahead, we are optimistic about our outlook. We are confident that film production is back on track and that the flow of excellent content will be bigger and better going forward, starting with an attractive pipeline of new releases throughout the rest of this year and next.”

Scrimgeour said Everyman had started the second half of the year in line with expectations and the outlook for the rest was “promising.”

Canaccord Genuity, which rates the stock by “buy,” said the results were “strong” and showed that everyman had recovered from the challenges of the pandemic.

It said: “The investments made in customer offerings in recent years, coupled with a solid movie release schedule and resumed site expansion plan, have resulted in a half-year record performance in terms of both revenue and EBITDA.

“The enhanced F&B offering and curated film offerings of major and independent releases provide a real point of differentiation for customers and have helped drive further market share gains.

“Looking ahead, significant growth opportunity remains available to the group, with a number of new locations in the next 24 months.”

Everyman shares were up 2.98 percent or 2.89p to 99.9p in late morning trading, but the group’s stock price has fallen nearly 30 percent in the past year.