Loungers confident of emerging strongly from pandemic

Café, bar and restaurant operator Loungers has said it is encouraged by the initial strength of its trading performance following the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions and remains confident it will emerge strongly from the pandemic.

The business, which is behind the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, finished the financial year to 18 April 2021 with 168 sites, having opened three new sites during the year. 

In the period from 19 April 2021 to 13 June 2021 a further five Lounge sites were opened in Wolverhampton, St. Ives, Stourbridge, Welwyn Garden City and Blackpool.

In the period following the initial relaxation of Covid-19 related restrictions on 12 April 2021, Loungers opened 88 sites to trade outdoors only and reopened all its sites from 17 May 2021 when indoor trading was permitted. 

Chief executive Nick Collins said: “I am really pleased with how the business has re-opened and our trading performance has once again demonstrated the resilience of both the Lounge and Cosy Club brands. Customers have returned with confidence and our team has performed amazingly.

“Whilst the government’s recently announced decision to leave the remaining restrictions in place for a further four weeks is disappointing for the hospitality sector as a whole, we look forward to a return to normality on 19 July.

Time and Attendance South West – Your returning workforce management solution 

The covid-19 social restrictions had a huge impact on the retail workforce across the entire country. It meant that the majority of them, frustratingly, had to stay off work until the government gave the go ahead to return. 

For a café, bar and restaurant operator such as Loungers, welcoming back their staff couldn’t come soon enough. 

However, welcoming back staff to a total of 168 sites can prove quite the challenge if a sufficient system is not in place to manage the workforce when they return. 

This is where Time and Attendance South West come in. We have workforce management systems that will improve the quality of your employees’ timekeeping and make your lives easier… leaving more time for you to deal with the important stuff. 

Our all-in-one, Smart Card Time & Attendance recording workstation incorporates; job booking, job costing, labour hours analysis and security management including quality CCTV playback. The state of the art system will dramatically improve your HR and security management with features that give you irrefutable control over Time & Attendance, working patterns rules.

In addition to this, our Self Service Module (SSM) is a web-based application that allows enrolled employees to Clock in or out, for Time and Attendance purposes, and book themselves on or off the fire evacuation list.

SSM may also be used by employees to book on or off production jobs via their internet browser. A person can use SSM to request new periods of absence, cancel pending absence requests or cancel approved absence requests that have not yet occurred. Requests can also be made to add missed clockings, amend or delete clockings made in error. 

If you would like more information on any of our products, please get in touch with a member of our sales team who will be happy to help.