The Oakman Group has updated on its performance for the half-year ending 1st January, and announced that it is looking to raise £5.3m from its shareholders via a discounted share placement.
Oakman Inns chief executive, Dermot King, and founder and executive chairman, Peter Borg-Neal
With debt markets pretty much closed to hospitality operators at the momeny, the objective of the share placement is to provide a buffer to protect the business from any further worsening of the external environment.
“We have very supportive shareholders, and we are confident that this raise will prove to be a success,” said group founder and executive chairman, Peter Borg-Neal.
Total sales for the 26 weeks to 1st January were £36,164,127 — up 41.5% against 2019, the last comparable pre-Covid period.
“We have continued to outperform sector averages over the past six months, which reflects great credit on [chief executive] Dermot King and his team,” said Peter.
“We believe our locations and market positions have given us a competitive advantage in the current environment. In addition, our commitment to maintaining our quality, despite the external challenges, has been key to our out-performance. We continue to maintain our properties, train our people and develop our offer.”
He added: “We expect our growth to accelerate further over the coming months. It is an unfortunate consequence of the current situation that many of our competitors will be closing their doors — some temporarily, some permanently. We have already seen many closures and there will be many more to come in the next few months.”
Oakman has a pipeline of six sites which are to be converted into the flagship Oakman Inn brand. These sites are in Gerrard’s Cross, Ludlow, Epsom, Old Hatfield, Harpenden, and St Albans. Work starts on the first of these, The Journeyman in Gerrards Cross, in February.
