XP Factory plc (LON:XPF), one of the UK’s pre-eminent experiential leisure businesses operating the Escape Hunt® and Boom Battle Bar® brands, has provided an update on trading for the 12-month period ended 31 March 2025.
Highlights:
· Record full year Group revenue of £57.3m, up 17% vs prior year (12 months ended 31 March 2024: £48.0m)
o Escape Hunt up 7% to £14.1m
o Boom Battle Bar up 30% to £41.9m
· Total Group like-for-like (LFL) revenue growth of +2.5%
o Escape Hunt +3.2%
o Boom Battle Bar +2.3%
· Pre-IFRS 16 adj. EBITDA expected at the upper end of market expectations
o Market expectations: £6.2m – £6.4m
o Prior year pre-IFRS 16 adj. EBITDA in the 12 months ended 31 March 20241: £5.1m
· Robust pipeline of new sites advancing well
o Canterbury Escape Hunt and Reading Boom Battle Bar expected to open shortly
o Five new sites in Heads of Terms with legals progressing
o Two additional offers made
The year ended 31 March 2025 represented another strong period of trading at XP Factory, including an exceptional festive period, with both businesses generating positive LFL sales in a challenging consumer environment.
With a clearly defined target to deliver £90m sales and £13m pre-IFRS 16 adjusted EBITDA for FY28, a robust pipeline of new sites is being developed. The underlying cash generation from operations, combined with a £10m revolving credit facility, provides the balance sheet strength to execute this.
Owner operated revenues at Escape Hunt were c. £14.1m in the 12 months to 31 March 2025, +3.2% on a LFL basis. New sites in Worcester, Glasgow and Cambridge opened between August and December 2024 and have all started strongly. Canterbury opened at the beginning of May 2025, and there is a robust pipeline for future site openings through the remainder of FY26. Unfortunately, Escape Hunt’s first ever site, Birmingham Central, was forced to close in March 2025 after the shopping centre in which it was located ceased operations at short notice. The group is actively searching for a replacement site.
Owner operated Boom revenue was c. £41.9m in the 12 months to 31 March 2025, +2.3% on a LFL basis. Boom Cambridge has continued to perform strongly since opening in December 2024, with Boom Reading due to open in June 2025.
Following an exceptional Christmas period, trading in both businesses continued strongly through January and February 2025, with Escape Hunt +6.3% LFL in the first eight weeks of the calendar year, and Boom +1.9% LFL in the equivalent period. In line with industry data, both businesses were negatively affected by the timing of Easter (March 2024 vs April 2025) and the unseasonal weather in March (the sunniest on record), driving negative LFLs in both brands in March. Normalising for these impacts, the Board would have expected the LFL trend to have continued as previously.
Commenting, Richard Harpham, Chief Executive of XP Factory plc said: “I am delighted that XP Factory has delivered another year of strong and profitable growth, reflecting our customers’ demand for fun and affordable leisure activities, and our team’s dedication to providing market-leading levels of customer satisfaction. Whilst macro uncertainties remain and unseasonal weather has impacted our most recent trading, we are confident in our outlook. Our new sites continue to generate industry leading returns on capital and we are excited about the growth runway ahead of us as we progress in our strategy to double EBITDA to £13m by FY28.”
1Annualisation of the FY25 15 month period to 31 March 2024 due to a change in reporting period
