Bar group BurningNight have successfully raised over half of their target on CrowdCube, with another nine days to run on their crowdfunding campaign.
With venues across the UK in major cities including Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff, the group’s concept bars include Bierkeller, specialising in serving steins, Shooters Sports Bar and Around The World. BurningNight has expanded exponentially since the group’s launch in 2010, with punters drawn to their versatile pub sites. Several of the venues offer multiple concept bars in one location, furthering CEO Allan Harper’s original ambition to appeal to the widest audience of customers by offering diverse brands in a single location.
The company are raising further funds to expand the group and, in particular the Bierkeller brand Sportskeller into more key cities around the UK. The BurningNight team have already outlined several sites for development. In July 2017 the group teamed up with pub redevelopment company Authentic Alehouse, who outsourced the day-to-day running of their pubs to BurningNight and bolstering their venue portfolio.
BurningNight have raised £411,000 of their £700,000 crowdfunding target, launched several weeks ago on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. The group’s financials are encouraging going into the raise, with group sales for 2015, 2016 and 2017 at £16.4 million £17.3 million and £19.5 million respectively, generating an operating profit of £595k in 2017. BurningNight are no stranger to the crowdfunding process, having hit a target of £7 million in a previous round – a fact which should may encourage investors to get involved in this current expansion push.
CEO Allan Harper says he has been pleased with the investor response so far. He said: “Sportskeller will bring something new to the leisure market, combining a lot of features that people love about Bierkeller and Shooters into one.
“We’re excited about the idea, we can see from our customer base that it has such potential, and we’re really happy so many people agree. With interest rates so low at the moment, a lot of them are looking for different ways to make their money work, we know they’re keen to support British-based businesses, and bars and restaurants are an especially popular sector right now.