Hollywood Bowl Group plc (2H4.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, good morning, and thank you for joining us for our financial year '24 full year results presentation. I plan to take you through the highlights of FY '24; our operational highlights for the U.K. business; the U.K. market review, including an update on our property progress on both refurbishments and new centers in the U.K.; and a full review of our Canadian operations. Laurence will take you through the numbers and take through a financial outlook for the year-end. Now whilst I appreciate those here today are very familiar with our growth strategy, for those looking us for the first time, we lay out our key investment highlights on Slide 3. We operate a high-quality business with a compelling investment case and a proven strategy for growth. The new center opening program is on track on both the U.K. and Canada. We continue to grow like-for-like revenues through the improvement of the existing estate, and our refurbishment program continues to deliver above our returns hurdle rate, all resulting in sustainable, profitable growth. Financial year 2024 was another very successful period for the group. Despite the very tough comps in 2023, the group generated record revenues of GBP 230.4 million, which was up 7.1% on FY '23. We grew revenues in both the U.K. and Canada and have delivered a 5.9% compound annual growth rate of our like-for-like revenues over the last 5 years. We posted EBITDA on a pre-IFRS basis of GBP 67.7 million and closed the period with GBP 28.7 million of net cash on the balance sheet. That's after paying dividends of GBP 26 million and spending GBP 31 million from growth and maintenance CapEx in the year. In line with our progressive dividend policy paying out 55% of profit after tax, we proposed to pay a total ordinary dividend of 12.06p per share. In the U.K., revenues were up 3.8%. The bowling businesses were up 0.3% on a like-for-like basis, with the mini golf businesses showing decline, resulting in overall revenues coming in flat against a very tough comparative year. Ten centers were refurbished and 4 new centers opened, generating a blended return of 33.7% on invested capital. Spend again was up 3%, driven through a mixture of increased dwell time and small price increases of just 0.9%. In Canada, revenues were up 42.2% overall, and up 6.3% on a like-for-like basis as we benefited from the full year effect of the operational changes made last year. We completed 2 refurbishments and started on-site in 2 others, acquired 3 centers and opened 1 new center of the year, driving a blended return on invested capital of 42.4%. The changes to the offer in both the existing and refurbished estate have been well received by our customers, with service scores increasing significantly during the period. I'll now hand over to Laurence.

Thanks, Steve. On Slide 7, we talk about revenue. On the back of an exceptionally strong FY 2022 and FY '23, it was pleasing to see total revenue growth of 7.1%, and encouraging to continue to see growth in both the U.K. and Canada. The U.K. first saw like-for-like revenues flat, although the Hollywood Bowl estate were actually up 0.3% with a decline in Puttstars. We saw like-for-like spend per game growth of 3.3%, taking like-for-like average spend per gain to GBP 11.19, and a decline in like-for-like game volumes. Our like-for-like revenues, along with the performance of our new U.K. centers, resulted in record U.K. revenues of GBP 199.7 million, growth of 3.8% compared to the very strong underlying revenues in prior year. As Steve mentioned, since FY 2019, the U.K. business has seen 5.9% compound annual growth, with average spend per gain up 2.9% CAGR, and centers (sic) [ games ] played per center up over 3% on a CAGR basis over that 5-year period. Canadian like-for-like revenues reviewed in Canadian dollars was up 6.3%, and alongside this strong like-for-like revenue growth, new centers performed well and resulted in total revenues of CAD 53 million, which is growth of 42.2% on a constant currency basis. Splitsville bowling centers on their own accounted for CAD 45.3 million of that CAD 53 million and were up 50.4% on an annual growth rate. On Slide 8, we set out the historic growth of the business to show how from FY 2019, we've grown from just under GBP 130 million of revenue to just over GBP 230 million in FY '24, which is a compound annual growth rate over that period of 11.7%. And in U.K., as I mentioned earlier, like-for-likes were up 5.9% CAGR. We see further growth in like-for-like and also annual revenue growth further into FY '25 and beyond. On Slide 9, we set out the income statement. Gross profit on cost of goods sold was at 83%, which was up 7.7% on the previous year and 0.4 percentage points up year-over-year. Gross profit on the U.K. business had a margin of 83.9%, which was up 20 basis points on the prior year, whilst in Canada, the margin was 76.8%, which is up 3.2% on the previous year. This margin increase is due in part to the significant growth seen in the Splitsville bowling centers, which now make up a significantly larger proportion of total revenue in Canada, versus our Striker equipment business. To put it into context, the Splitsville centers have a gross profit margin of 84.8%, which is in line with expectations. Center-level admin costs, excluding depreciation and amortization, were up 12.6% to GBP 98.6 million, and of that GBP 98.6 million, employee costs are GBP 45.7 million of that. That's an increase of GBP 5 million compared to the prior year due to a combination of a higher than inflationary national minimum and living wage as well as higher like-for-like revenues, new centers and the significant growth in the Canadian business. Of the GBP 45.7 million of employee costs, $13.6 million, but GBP 7.8 million were Canadian, and the balance of GBP 37.9 million was to do with the U.K. Given the national living wage and national insurance announcements in the recent budget, we expect to see an increase in employee costs in U.K. like-for-like centers in excess of 8% for the second half of FY 2025, with the national insurance costs being in excess of GBP 1.2 million on an annualized basis. Total property-related costs accounted for under pre-IFRS 16 were GBP 42 million with GBP 37.4 million of those in the U.K., and that was up GBP 3.5 million on the prior year. Rent loss account for nearly 50% of total property costs, as you can see on Slide 9, at GBP 19.8 million. And of those GBP 19.8 million, GBP 18.3 million was in the U.K., and that was up GBP 0.6 million on the prior year, which is less than 1%. In the year, we received business rates rebates in the second half with GBP 2 million in relation to claims made in respect to the FY 2023 revaluation, of which we expect half of that GBP 2 million to be in the base numbers going forward, and therefore, we'll continue to see that in FY 2025. Underlying business rates are due to increase by 1.7% in the second half of the year, which is based on the inflation number of September 2024. Canadian property costs were in line with expectations at CAD 7.9 million, an increase of CAD 3.4 million, all down to the size of the estate increase year-over-year. Utility costs increased compared to the same period in the previous year by GBP 1.9 million, with U.K. centers accounting for GBP 1.7 million of this, mostly due to the hedge sell-off that we spoke about in FY '23, which was worth over GBP 1 million. On to corporate costs, which decreased marginally year-on-year by GBP 0.4 million to GBP 24.9 million, we actually saw a reduction in the U.K., but that was more than offset by the corporate cost increases we saw in Canada as we continue to grow the support team. The Canadian corporate costs now are GBP 3.8 million of the GBP 24.9 million. Group adjusted EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 increased by 4.3% to GBP 67.7 million, and the U.K. was GBP 62.3 million of that, while Canada was GBP 5.4 million. It is worth noting that we do have a ForEx exchange difference year-over-year in Canada. In FY 2023, the ForEx translation was 1.66. In FY '24, it was 1.73. On a pound basis, that actually cost GBP 250,000 in terms of translation, but what I would say is given we're not repatriating any money to the U.K., having a weaker Canadian dollar, whilst not great from a statutory reporting perspective, when sending money over to Canada, that benefits us quite significantly. Exceptional costs in the year relate to 3 areas. The first is the acquisition costs in relation to the 4 centers, 1 in the U.K. and 3 in Canada, which totaled GBP 0.9 million. The second is the earn-out consideration for the former owner of the Canadian business, which is GBP 1.9 million. And then we also received GBP 0.6 million in compensation for the closure of our Surrey Quays center, and it is worth noting that Surrey Quays center was worth GBP 1.5 million EBITDA in FY 2024, GBP 3.1 million in terms of revenue. You can see the effects of IFRS 16 on the accounts here as we set out the add back of GBP 19.8 million for rent and a depreciation and interest charge of GBP 23.5 million. Normal depreciation increased year-on-year by GBP 1.8 million due to the continued capital investment program in new centers and also the refurbishments. We undertook detailed impairment testing in the year, which resulted in an impairment charge of GBP 5.3 million, which relates to our Puttstars centers. These results support the decision to focus on the continued expansion of our Hollywood Bowl and our Splitsville locations. Group adjusted profit before tax excluding the exceptional costs of the earn-out was GBP 45 million. And actually, when you exclude the noncash impairment of GBP 5.3 million, it's GBP 50.3 million. And if you do the same on the previous year, adjusted PBT is up 1% to GBP 50.3 million, and earnings per share were 21.92p per share. Lots of detail there, guys. On Slide 10, we lay out the 5-year trend of growth, seeing 12.1% CAGR growth on EBITDA. And again, we continue to see growth in that number in FY 2025 and beyond as like-for-likes return to positive growth and we continue to add to the portfolio. FY '24 has been a record investment into new centers, as shown on Slide 11. We added a record 8 centers to the estate, growing the estate to 72 centers in the U.K. and 13 in Canada. The group spent GBP 8 million on maintenance CapEx, including the investment into our new booking engine of GBP 1.5 million, which Steve will talk about later, continued spend on the rollout of our Pins on Strings technology at GBP 1.8 million, and solar panel installs as well as the current extensions to the current installations of GBP 1 million. Along with the payment of corporation tax in the year and the rent being split between capital and interest, we still have significant cash to invest in the growth of the business, and we spent GBP 11.5 million on our refurbishment program, with 10 centers refurbished in the U.K. as well as 2 started and finished in Canada, and another one started, which was finished in FY 2025. New center CapEx was a net GBP 19.5 million. This was in relation to the 4 new openings in the year in Colchester, Westwood Cross, Dundee and Waterloo as well as 70% of the spend of our recent new opening in Swindon, so GBP 2 million of the last year's numbers relates to Swindon opening in this year, which opened in November, and just under GBP 1 million on our 2 centers that we've started on-site in Canada in Kanata and Creekside. Post these spends, the business generated free cash flow of GBP 16.9 million, and it's also worth noting that we paid out GBP 26.2 million on the final dividends and interim dividends as well as over GBP 13 million on the 4 sites that we acquired in the year. All of this has still left us with a very healthy cash balance at the end of the year of GBP 28.7 million as well as an undrawn revolving credit facility of GBP 25 million and accordion of GBP 5 million as well. On Slide 12, we lay out a reminder of our capital allocation policy through maintenance CapEx, transformational refurbishments, investments within our new centers and acquisitions. And then in line with this policy around our ordinary dividend, we proposed a final dividend of 8.08p per share, which gives a total dividend in the year of 12.06p per share. On Slide 13, we look at the outlook for FY '25, and despite the government budget, we've got a very positive outlook for FY '25. We've seen a return to like-for-like growth in the U.K., with like-for-likes positive in the early part of the year, in line with analyst expectations, and we've already opened up 1 new center in Swindon. With the full year effect of the new centers, refurbishments in both U.K. and Canada and the new FY 2025 centers, we look forward to an even higher revenue growth in FY 2025 than we saw in FY 2024. We're mindful of the inflationary pressures, but are well positioned to manage these increases due to our P&L dynamics, payroll and business rates inflation was as expected, excluding obviously the national insurance increase. And with electricity usage now hedged to the end of FY 2027, we've only got upside on our electricity costs. As a reminder, our P&L dynamics of 70% of our revenue not subject to cost of goods inflation and a payroll rate of less than 20%. This puts us in a strong position to mitigate the further inflationary pressures. We've also been extremely prudent on our price increases, which Steve will talk about later on, which gives us opportunity to look at price later in the year. Now moving on to the recent budget. The Employers' National Insurance threshold change will have the biggest impact for us as an employer in our sector, where part-time hours are the norm. The cost for an average hourly paid team member working 20 hours per week on national living wage would increase from just under GBP 400 per annum for Employers' National Insurance to just over GBP 1,155 per annum. Now a reminder to everybody that we don't pay national insurance -- sorry, nobody pays, actually, not we. Nobody pays national insurance for anybody under the age of 21 unless they exceed the upper boundary, which is GBP 966 per week in terms of earnings. Now look, as a people-led business, our success hinges on having great people who deliver the best possible experience to our customers, and we will continue to prioritize investment into our teams, attracting and retaining top talent, and this won't change as a result of these new measures. In terms of use of capital in FY '25, we're planning at least 10 refurbishments with at least 4 of those in Canada. We'll open at least 6 new centers, with 1 already opened. I continue the investment in solar as well as Pins on Strings, although we've actually already completed 4 of the remaining 6 centers in terms of Pins on Strings as at today. Total CapEx is forecasted between GBP 40 million and GBP 45 million for FY '25, and our allocation policy remains unchanged at 55% profit after tax.

Thanks, Laurence. So turning our attention to a review of the U.K. on Slide 15. We continue to drive growth through the continuous improvement we made to our offer. So starting with the bowling environment, we've continued to roll out Pins on Strings technology as Laurence has just mentioned, and coupled with the investments in the other aspects of the back of house operation, seeing record levels of reliability this year. Front of house, the refurbished and new centers boast the very latest in lighting and sound, allowing us to create the perfect environment for the very different customer groups that we get during the week. Four bowling centers now boast the mini golf offers. We've leveraged the learnings from Puttstars, installing the offer as part of space optimization and new center projects. Our industry-leading amusement offer has seen significant investment in the year, with over GBP 5.5 million invested, buying 322 additional machines and the swapping out of 205 of the older pieces. The tiered pricing tests and new payment options have been rolled out to more centers, helping drive both game volumes, spend per game, which was up 6.1% year-on-year and overall amusement revenue, which was up 7% year-on-year. In our food and drink offer, our well-tested mantra of delivering a quality product served quickly, consistently at a value from any price point continues to resonate with our customers, with value for money scores up 2 percentage points on the prior period. Further refinements to the menu were made in the year, keeping pace with the trend in shareable food offers and maintaining our low price point. The improvements to the at-lane and at-table ordering delivered some very solid results, with revenue through the self-service platform up 53% on the prior period. A key part of our growth strategy centers around the returns we generate from the revenue-generating capital we invest. On Slide 16, you'll see the results from our endeavors this year. We completed 10 projects in the year, that's in the U.K., a mixture of full refurbishments, rebrands of acquisitions and space optimization projects. We have an impressive track record of delivering returns in excess of our targeted 33% return hurdle. Despite our estate being very well invested, the second and third-generation refurbishments continue to deliver at or ahead of our target as we roll all the learnings from the new centers into the site refreshes. We plan to complete at least 6 further refurbishments in FY '25 and rebrand all the Puttstars centers to Putt and Play by Hollywood Bowl. FY '24 was another great year for new center openings, with 4 new centers opened in the year. We acquired Lincoln Bowl at the very beginning of the financial year, completing its full refurbishment and rebrand in April '24. The center is trading nicely ahead of expectation. We opened a new Hollywood Bowl in Dundee in May '24 next to the #1 cinema in town. It opened strongly and is delivering in line with expectations. Hollywood Bowl Colchester that opened in July is the largest center we've opened today, over 2 floors boasting 26 lanes of bowling, 20 holes of mini golf, a large and diverse arcade and our tried and tested food and beverage offer. This center is also trading in line with expectation. In August, we opened Hollywood Bowl Westwood Cross. It's in a predominantly retail-led scheme in Kent and has been the most successful new opening in our recent history. Since the start of FY '25, we opened Hollywood Bowl Swindon in November, taking our U.K. portfolio to 73 centers, and we have 3 further openings scheduled for this financial year. We also have a healthy pipeline of new centers for the U.K. and remain confident we can open at least 2 new centers a year over the next 5 years, which is in line with guidance. On Slide 18, we look at our investments in technology. Over the last 12 months, we've been developing our own bespoke booking system, Compass. As our business has evolved, we were very aware that the current off-the-shelf systems are not suitable for the size and complexity of our business. Compass was launched during the second half of the financial year, and after a successful pilot, rolled out to all centers in the U.K. The system is on test in 1/3 of the Canadian centers and will be fully rolled out across the Canadian businesses over the next 8 weeks. The immediate benefits of the new system include increased speed across all 3 channels. That's the web, the customer contact center as well as customers that come to us in person. It's delivered improved reliability and a significant reduction in costs compared to the older system, generating a 32% return on the GBP 1.5 million we invested from cost savings alone, savings we will be reinvesting into improvements to the digital journey, using our new system as the core enabler for growth. We do have an ambitious development road map for the new system, which will include enhancing functionality to better improve our self-service options, customer engagement as well as some operational efficiencies. Turning to ESG. We have a focus on 3 core areas, the first part of our ESG strategy as laid out on Slide 19, operating safe and inclusive leisure destinations, creating outstanding workplaces and a commitment to operating sustainable centers. In FY '24, over 1 million concessionary games were bowled by a mixture of special needs groups and their carers, school groups and local community support groups, as we strengthen the relationships within the local communities we operate. We also raised over GBP 85,000 for our nominated charity Macmillan, a charity partner chosen by our team members. We have a great pride in our industry-leading in-house training and development programs. This year, we achieved record attendance in our management development programs, and we're delighted that 58% of internal management promotions were achieved through internal appointments, with 11% of our team members participating in development programs. For the third year running, we ranked amongst the top 25 U.K. Best Big Companies to Work For. We also retained the top 3 star ranking for our working practices at our Hemel Hempstead Group support office. Our U.K. centers also received a coveted 2-star award from WorkL. These results explain why we have relatively low team member turnover rates compared to the wider leisure market. Building a sustainability focus within our centers, 82.9% of all waste was recycled in the year. We installed solar panels on 3 more of our properties. Thirty centers now have solar arrays on their roofs, generating an annual yield of over 5 million kilowatt hours. Now with an increased competitor set, it's more important than ever to protect our value for money proposition. Now we've been able to swallow all of the recent inflation-led pressures and to a large extent, the unexpected tax burden put on us by the new government. We have been able to do this due to our unique operating model. It certainly helps having close to 50% of our revenues attracting 0 cost of sales. The relative price of the game of bowling at Hollywood Bowl has actually fallen since 2021, as demonstrated on the graph at the bottom of the slide. An adult game of bowling is 59.1% of an hours' pay to the national living wage rate, down from 79.7% in 2018. We remain the lowest priced of all the branded bowling operators, and use our dynamic pricing to encourage bookings in our shoulder periods and drive yield by effective use of our technology rather than simply increasing the headline price. There are further opportunities to become more sophisticated with our pricing, and we do have a number of trials scheduled for the coming months. Our approach to pricing is a key competitive advantage. With 20 new competitors expected to be coming into the markets in which we operate over the next 12 months, the pricing gap between us and other comparable activities is growing, making Hollywood Bowl all the more attractive to our core group of customers. Turning our attention to Canada. As you saw from the earlier financial and operational slides, FY '24 was another very successful year for our North American operation. We set out a market update on Slide 22, demonstrating the progress we've made to date and also the size of the opportunity in Canada. From learnings of both owning and operating a Canadian business coupled with the customer research completed, now whilst there are some nuances in the market that can't be ignored, there are huge amounts of similarities between the U.K. and U.K. customer base. There's a large target customer base and demand for indoor family entertainment with, as we have in the U.K., weather being a driver for choice. Bowling has a strong foothold in Canada and high levels of participation. There are 170 10-pin bowling centers in Canada as well as a whole load of other operators with candlepin and 5-pin, with the vast majority of them underinvested independently operated businesses. Now we got busy in the early part of our ownership, acquiring the most obvious assets growing from 5 to 13 centers and becoming the market leader on size and profitability. There are still a number of other acquisition targets, and we're increasingly excited about the new center opening potential. Retail in Canada is starting to follow the same trends as Europe and America, and landlords of the high footfall, very well-located shopping centers and out of town retail parks have been impressed with what we've created out in Canada, and coupled with our strong covenant, we are building a reputation as the leisure tenant of choice. Quebec also presents opportunity, albeit with some risks, dual language requirements as well as different taxation, liquor and people laws are all areas that will require careful consideration before we enter this territory. As laid on Slide 23, it's been a very busy year for the team in Canada, 3 full center refurbishments and rebrands, which completed in the year and 1 new center opened. Now these are transformational refurbishments and expensive property development projects, fixing decades of underinvestment, installing the latest technology and the revamped Splitsville brand. Early performance has been very positive, with Kingston, as an example, showing like-for-like growth of over 80% in the first few months post completion of the refurbishment. The centralization of marketing, finance, people and property has helped speed up the implementation of operational improvement initiatives and the customer experience. A number of trials to more closely align the Canadian offer with the U.K. way of doing things has yielded very positive results, bowl in your own shoes, dynamic pricing and the installation of Pins on Strings, just some examples of the initiatives underpinning the growth. Slide 24 gives more detail on the first new opening completed in Canada, Waterloo in the great Toronto area. The site, an old nightclub co-located with an escape room and fitness center, has 3 large universities on its doorstep and strong local family demographic within a 15-minute drive time. The build cost was $6 million, and whilst the delays were frustrating, provided a fabulous learning opportunity for the next raft of new openings slated for FY '25. The targeted return on investment for the center is 15%. Now that's 4 percentage points lower than the U.K. That's due to the increased cost of building. We're expecting a slower maturity profile for the first few new centers out in Canada that should accelerate as the Splitsville brand gains traction. On Slide 25, we look at our most recent acquisition, a site in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Unlike in the U.K., there are large spaces available for leisure operators in high-quality locations. And as the Canadian business model is in its infancy, we thought it prudent to test as many options as possible. Stoked was a family-owned business opened in 2020 with a very high quality fit out, meaning that it required no immediate capital expenditure from us and has some notable differences to the Splitsville offer. In addition to the 15 lanes of bowling, the restaurant is full-service with an extensive menu. It has a large competition-sized indoor electric powered go-kart track, a large owned arcade and an indoor high ropes course with a big zip wire. It was rather amusing watching Laurence slide down. We paid $11 million for the business. We've retained a very strong management team and are learning a huge amount from the operation, should any other suitable locations become available. The property pipeline is healthy in Canada, as laid out on Slide 26. We're on site in 2 new builds, both in very different locations to enable us to make controlled tests for the offer. In addition to the solus location test in Waterloo and the multi-activity center in Saskatchewan, the new center in Kanata, Ottawa, will be the first center co-located with retail and leisure, and the first site to closely mirror the U.K. offer, selling games with a U.K. style food offer. The center is in an ex electrical retail unit, and we'll be the only 10-pin bowling offer in Ottawa. Creekside in Calgary, also due to open in H1 of FY '25, is in an old retail unit co-located to retail and fitness centers to the north of the city of Calgary. We have one further center agreed and signed that is due to open in H1 of '26, and we're in advanced discussions with landlords, and a number of other opportunities. So in summary, it's been another very busy and successful year for the group. Demand for our offer remains strong, and we've worked hard to keep our prices and price increases well below inflation, and the cost of our product, fabulous value for money. We've got a strong balance sheet, with a simple proven business model, and a capital allocation policy focused on providing progressive shareholder returns. We'll start with questions from the room first before we move into the phones, if that's okay with everybody.

Maybe just to start on like-for-like growth. So you're saying that the 5.9% in the U.K. has been very impressive since 2019. Obviously, this year was a bit weaker because of comps and because maybe a moderation. But as we're thinking about like-for-like for in '25, '26, '27, are you still comfortable in obtaining, say, a low single-digit like-for-like across the U.K. centers?

Yes. Yes. I mean we -- the analysts have all got estimates between sort of 2.3% and 3% like-for-like. We're comfortable with the forecast, along with new centers that would give us high single-digit growth in the U.K.

Got it. And then maybe just on the recent acquisition, Stoked. So obviously a couple of different ancillary sort of revenue streams there. Could we see this as almost similar to what you did at Puttstars, in this is a perfect opportunity to look for new ancillaries that could potentially roll out in other U.K. centers? Or is it more that this is just a really well-invested center that you wanted to get your hands on, see what happens, then potentially more lanes to be put in, more amusements could be put in? What's the rationale there?

It's probably more relevant for Canada than it is the U.K. What's different about, I suppose, in Canada, is there's a lot more space in higher quality locations at affordable rents. To try and recreate something like Stoked in the U.K., you just need kind of 60,000 square foot, and in the locations that we want to be in the U.K., that space just isn't available, not certainly at the rents that we can afford. So this was a far opportunistic buy that was a fabulous return on the invested capital and will trade really well, but does give us a great opportunity to test a multi-activity offer. And I think now the learnings for that, sure, we can retranslate over into the U.K., certainly likely Colchester where we have gone with a multi-activity offer, which also dovetails into the one that we've got in York and in Uxbridge, a new site that we'll be opening with bowling and another offering [ maybe of bowling ] or mini golf offers in terms of what might be available there.

I think we've got time to review this. We've got time to continue to see EBITDA come through on that side without having to rush and make a decision on its success or otherwise. And as Steve mentioned, this is more of a Canadian opportunity rather than one in the U.K.

Yes, you're saying about the U.K. having 20 new competitor site openings in 2025. How many have you had in 2024 opening up against you? And how big is the U.K. market in terms of number of building [indiscernible], because there has been increasing word over the last couple of years. And in terms of Canada, are you seeing any increase in [indiscernible] activity there?

Yes, sure. I mean in terms of the new sites that were opened in markets this year, I think from memory, it was 18. I'll just have to double check that, and I'll get back to you and clarify it. Yes, I mean there has been a huge increase in experiential leisure offerings post-COVID. I think if anything, what we've seen is that start to settle down a bit more now, really. There's lots of offerings coming in what we would deem as Tier 2 locations rather than the top quality locations that we're trading in. And as you've seen from our numbers, we've managed to comp what was an incredibly strong year last year, so despite the increased competitors that are in the market. I think as well the types of people coming in are really what we would class as direct competitors in terms of the all-inclusive family entertainment offer at a really good value money price point. And as we've seen, the price gap has continued to grow between us and these new entrants and new competitors because their payroll model is very different, their cost of sale model is very different and their gross profit model is different, and they're paying higher rents. Their pricing has to be quite a big way away from where we are, so I do feel as though we are better placed than most to be able to make the most of the increased levels of customers that we've got coming through as well as the increased levels of costs that everybody else is going to be seeing. In Canada, no, not yet. We haven't seen significant increases in competition over in the Canadian market. There's already some quite well-established all-inclusive operators out there, the likes of The Rec Rooms, Dave & Buster's, other operators that are currently trading there. But yes, time will tell. It's one of the downsides of being listed is that you have to tell everybody how well you're doing, so an opportunity for copying for sure.

Can you talk a bit about cost savings and what you can do on labor? Pins on Strings presumably is very cost effective. Also is there automation check-in, that kind of thing, because obviously that [indiscernible] a big cost to look at? That's my first question.

So I mean, on payroll, we do need to be really careful. We are a hospitality business and customers come to us to be hosted. So whilst we can do check-in, and -- well, we've never been able to do automated check-ins before. With our new system, we are going to develop out some testing on automated check-in, but we need to do it really carefully to make sure that we aren't damaging the hosted experience that we offer. 18.6% payroll to revenue is pretty low and pretty lean as it is now, so I'm of the mind that going harder on that may compromise the offer that we deliver to our customers, and we are really proud of the customer service scores that we're able to deliver year-on-year. So I think it's a case of us making sure that all of the cost lines are being as keenly managed as they possibly can. But yes, increased taxation isn't helpful for hospitality businesses for sure.

In Puttstars, obviously very much in cash, the write-down. Can you say what happens now the unit sites are EBITDA negative, and do you exit them one by one as the leases come up?

I mean look, it's early to say whether you'd exit them and actually having taken the impairment on them. Actually, they'll be contributing in a strange way, but we do have breaks on the leases. However, we're not going to be bragging that we're coming out of those. The breaks are 10-year breaks, and the first site opened in 2020. But what we're not going to be doing is opening up solus Puttstars sites.

I think as we've mentioned, we've rebranded them all to Putt & Play by Hollywood Bowl. It was really difficult to get a new brand to gain traction. We did open them up in the post kind of boom period just before COVID, and then they did incredibly well in those first 2 years post COVID. What we've seen is a kind of normalized levels of trade, and seeing the numbers that have been put out by the likes of Brighton Pier and other mini golf offerings, they're kind of trading in similar kind of levels to those types of operators. So it's still contributing, as Laurence mentioned. I mean, part of the big write-down was because of the way that the leasing has to be adjusted for post-IFRS 16, which is a little bit painful. I think on a more normalized basis, you won't see that same levels of impairment coming out. Notwithstanding that, it's not something we're going to be rolling out. Putting under the Hollywood Bowl brand gives us the ability to leverage that through the website, the increased levels of customer traffic that we're seeing as well as if they continue trading as they are now, we'll be quite happy with that, really, rather than expecting to see improved levels of growth.

A couple of questions. Just intrigued by the comments on sort of pricing. Obviously, you talked about the gap widened structurally with peers. Are you happy to see that gap widen further? Or you think now is the time to start seeing prices move in line with peers?

I don't think now is the time to be doing price increases. There is -- consumer confidence is mixed. I think this year has felt much more like a normalized year, [ Greg ]. Those kind of post-COVID years, it didn't matter whether we were boiling hot or [ choking ] it down with [indiscernible], we were still full. This year, we saw a similar normalized pattern that we've seen in '16, '17, '18 and 2019. This year as well, we see more people looking for the value offers, which has been great for us because [ this meant ] been able to fill those shoulder periods where we've got the offers available and free up capacity for the busier times of day. That says to me that customers are looking for value. And if we don't need to put pricing up, I'd rather keep it in my back pocket. So we haven't made any of the immediate changes to pricing like a lot of others have done with the changes that are coming in April from national insurance contributions and some of the hits. Equally though, I don't think we've seen fully the impact of what that will mean for us. All of our supply chain are facing the same issues as everybody else on the national insurance contributions. They've yet to start moving their prices. So I think taking a call in April to see where we are, given that we don't need to in the short term, I think would be the prudent thing to do. Let's trade through this peak trade period, keeping our prices as competitive as they are, which again puts us in good stead for the summer months, when our customers might look to come back to us when the kids are next on holiday.

One for Laurence. So quite a lot of capital is going into Canada now. Where do you think sort of the return on capital [indiscernible] business [indiscernible]?

So in terms of new centers as Steve mentioned, it's going to take time for the brand to come out of its infancy. And therefore, I think maturity curve on new centers will be slower than it is in the U.K., but that will get better as the brand get known more. Again, you can open up a center in the U.K., it can be 3 hours away, but everyone still knows Hollywood Bowl in Sheffield or Liverpool, et cetera. You open up [ a bowl ] in Ottawa, as Steve mentioned, in Kanata, you are 2 hours away from the [indiscernible] center in terms of Hollywood Bowl -- sorry, in terms of Splitsville. So I think they will be slower. We're targeting a return in our refurbishment of 25%. And again, as Steve mentioned, we're correcting decades of underinvestment in terms of maintenance CapEx. Now there's an argument that says that of the [ GBP 4 million ] that we spent in Kanata, probably half of that was maintenance CapEx, replacing powers, having to do electrical changes, having to take out asbestos, et cetera. But we don't split it. We never have, but I'm still confident we'll get more than 25% return on the Kanata site. We'll be doing that again in a number of sites within Canada through FY 2025 as well. So I think it's going to be the first lot of refurbs. We're going to be spending a significant amount of capital to [indiscernible] some of these maintenance CapEx and catch-up CapEx in terms of maintenance, but then after that, when they get their second of refurbishments, which should be in years to come, there'll be less than that, but the returns should still be really strong. On new sites, we have -- as the brand grows, I think the year 3 ROI will be 20%. The year 1 will be around 15%, and acquisitions will be slightly different dependent on what we're buying it for.

Just on that sort of just on pricing and sort of current trading, you've seen many interesting comments about people looking for value. Is that a shift that you've seen in recent months? Or is that sort of what we've seen to the cost of living on that sort of the student market areas.

This is definitely a trend that was really prevalent during the whole period of last year. Students have felt the pinch, for sure, because their student rents have gone up. The access to debt has been the same, and employment isn't as high as it has been before. It was really, really challenging to recruit team members. Now it's so much more like it was normally as there's less jobs around, and certainly the students will have been feeling the pinch on that. But then students represent less than 6% of our revenues. It's not a big part of our overall market, and that's why it helps to sort of fill those shoulder periods and help us drive incremental yields on the more premium times of the day in the weeks.

I think other piece around that will be, again, as we said, until we get through April, May, even June time, I don't think we're really going to see the effects of the government changes around national insurance and even a living wage and minimum wage impact about what it might do to inflation, what it might do to interest rates. Doing something now, it could be foolhardy if you have to roll it back. So we'll be waiting to see what [indiscernible].

With reference to Slide 15, you showed a capital gain increase [indiscernible]. Can you give us an indication of what you would expect [indiscernible] 2025 per type of item?

I mean we don't split out, so I'm not going to put it out there. In terms of the U.K. like-for-like growth of 3%, we expect 1/3 of it to come from volume and 2/3 of it to come from spend. And that will be a mixture of -- there might be some prices Steve mentioned early, we'll wait and see where that is, but otherwise, it will be increased dwell time, and therefore increase spend when they're in with us.

And do you expect also like-for-likes to go up for Puttstars in 2025?

I mean the rebrand will help, but it is a small proportion of our estate. So we're looking at 5 centers here, so I wouldn't be too focused. One way or the other, it's not going to move the dial.

Great. Thanks so much, everyone.