Good morning and welcome to our results update for the first half of 2022. I'm Graham Blackwell, and joining me today is Antony Smith, our CFO, who will help me guide you through the results presentation today. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Turning to our agenda on page 3. We will start with highlights of what has been a record-breaking first half of the year, building on the strong momentum from the second half of 2021. We have fundamentally shifted the baseline of sales and profitability post-pandemic, and are now building on this new higher base. I will take you through our operational review, where I will set out the strong progress we have made in improving the customer experience and enhancing the quality of our centers. Antony will then take you through the financial details for the first half of 2022. The numbers show record sales, continued growth with healthy profit and cash conversion. Antony will then conclude with an overview of our outlook for the balance of 2022 and into 2023. We are mindful of the wider macroeconomic landscape, but remain confident in our prospects for continued growth. We are a value for money and affordable family day out with an engaging customer proposition. I'm confident that we will demonstrate today with the strong progress that we have made, that we have a sustainable model in place that is well-positioned for future success of the business. We'll be happy to take any questions at the end of the presentation. Turning to page 4. The first half of this year has surpassed all records, even beating what we thought was an unbeatable second half of 2021. It's now 70 weeks since reopening on the 17th of May, 2021 post-COVID. The strong growth we have demonstrated ever since we exited the pandemic is not just temporary, it's permanent. I think we can now confidently say that we've reset our baseline and are operating at a higher level than ever before. Sales are 52.6% higher than in 2019. We have good operational controls on costs, allowing us to create efficiency gains from our volume growth. As a result, profits have more than doubled since 2019. We can attribute this step change to our winning formula. We invest in our centers and crucially in our core bowling product to make them great places to visit and enjoy with friends and family. We deliver value for money entertainment that offers something for everyone at an affordable price, and we are supported by great people engaged and committed to looking after our customers. We are confident that the results like these are not simply a one-off, but part of a sustainable business model that will continue to deliver profitable growth. Our group is net cash positive, and we have now fully repaid our CLBILS loan. Today, we are announcing the resumption of dividend payments with an interim payment in October of GBP 0.03 per share. 90% of our energy costs are fixed until September 2024, insulating us from the worst of the current inflationary pressures. Moreover, we have a business model with high gross margins that leverages sales growth to create operating efficiencies that more than offset the inflationary pressures in labor and consumables. With a record PBT margin of almost 25%, there is plenty of scope for the group to generate strong shareholder returns. Moving to page 5, I'd like to pick out some financial highlights for the first half of 2022. Like-for-like sales growth of 46% against 2019, the last full clean H1 prior to COVID is the group's highest ever reported number. More pleasing is that even against a very strong reopening in 2021, we are 19% up on a like-for-like basis in H1, albeit that only covers six weeks of trading. Last year, we said that we felt that our summer sales performance was unbeatable due to the unique combination of U.K. staycation and the pent-up demand from Freedom Day on the 19th of July. I'm delighted to tell you that we were wrong about that, and in the 11 weeks since the 27th of June, we have delivered like-for-like growth of 0.5%. A real sign that we have now established a higher baseline and can continue to grow from there. With sales growth comes record profit growth. Group adjusted EBITDA was GBP 28.8 million, and with an adjustment for cash rent, we get an EBITDA of GBP 22.5 million, which in a half year is almost equal to the full- year EBITDA of GBP 23.6 million delivered in full- year 2019. PBT is likewise at an all-time high of GBP 15.7 million. Full- year 2019 delivered adjusted PBT of GBP 15.4 million for the full- year, showing that we have more than doubled our profits. Now turning to page 6, and I'll take you through our operating review for the first half. As well as delivering this very strong financial performance, we have made great strides in our strategic priorities. Over the next few slides, I would like to take you through some highlights. We'll start on page 7 with a reminder of our simple strategy. We are focused on delivering our customers a first-class customer experience, digitally enabled in high-quality centers and with increasing U.K. coverage. Our strategy relies on an engaged team of people, and each decision we take is focused on ensuring the long-term success and future of the business. I'll take you through some highlights starting on page 8 with how we entertain our customers every day. Bowling is at the heart of all entertainment centers. In the first half of this year, over 6.5 million games were played by almost 4 million customers. Sales from bowling represented 45% of our revenue. Because of this, it's essential that we continue to invest in the bowling product to ensure it is best in class. In the first half, GBP 1.9 million has been invested in touchscreen terminals, the latest scoring systems, and relaying some of our older lanes and replacing worn-out equipment. All of this ensures that our customers can enjoy their bowling whichever one of our centers they visit. When our customers play, they usually choose to enjoy some additional activities such as video games, air hockey, pool, or our ever-popular coin pushers and prize-winning machines. These represent more than 1/4 of our income, and we focus on making sure that our facilities are of the highest standard. We are seeing an increasing trend towards some of our alternative experiential leisure offerings. We are refreshing our laser tag arenas, installing karaoke rooms, refurbishing and extending our soft play areas. Sales from these additional experiences have almost doubled since 2019, with an increase of 89%. Our partnership with Houdini's to offer escape rooms extends the variety further. Although the income is recorded in the joint venture company, we benefit from contribution to our property costs and additional footfall and F&B revenues. Now turning to page 9 and perhaps the most important focus area for us, value. Our customers want and expect great value for money from us. Unlike most leisure hospitality operators, we don't have a cost of sales burden that is subject to the changes within the commodities markets. 75% of our income is asset-based rather than relying on purchase of goods for resale. This allows us to optimize our yield and balance our pricing to generate the best overall income. In 2022, we have continued to hold our prices at 2019 levels. In fact, the average realized price per game of bowling has reduced by 2.1%. By contrast, restaurant and pub prices have grown significantly since 2019, so our relative pricing position is now better than ever. Our model is simple. We offer value for money to our customers. We provide a fun social activity that can be enjoyed by all ages together in a warm and welcoming environment dedicated to entertainment. Turning to page 10 and our increasing digitalization. Digital is an important element of our strategy. We have continued in the first half of the year to drive engagement and participation across all social media channels. We continue to see over 60% of our income being pre-booked online. Our customers continue the global trend of social media participation, and we are seeing never-reached levels of engagement in all areas of our social media platforms. We continue to make it simple to book our offers through an improved website and a simplified payment methods. Our growing database allows us to target our deals to the right customers and at the right times. We firmly believe it's all about the data. On page 11, I'd like to show you our refurbishment program. Our refurbishments are a blend of essential maintenance and modernization. We create improved atmosphere and take the opportunity to add activities and increase the sales density. By focusing on our investment on improving the customer experience, we can generate significant sales uplifts and strong investment returns of over 30%. In the first half of the year, incremental sales from centers refurbished in the previous 12 months were GBP 3.3 million, and since 2019, we've increased our sales density by 41% to an annualized 90 GBP per square feet. In the first half of the year, we have delivered major refurbishments in Northampton, Coventry, Bexleyheath and Croydon. Each is unique, but with a common purpose to give our customers the best in family entertainment. Since 2019, we have repurposed redundant space and made it customer-facing to the equivalent of adding a whole new bowling center to the group. Turning to page 12 and our newly acquired center in Harlow. We acquired Harlow in May of this year. It was well-established, 14-lane bowling center, but as you can see from the pictures, it was somewhat unloved and underinvested. We immediately refurbished it and turned it into a Tenpin that we can be proud of. The sales have already doubled, and we now have a town center 14-lane bowling center with modern bar and lanes that make for a great destination for friends and families to enjoy without having to travel further afield. Overall, we have invested GBP 1.1 million, and we are well on track to deliver returns in excess of 30% on this. Our pipeline for new openings is looking stronger than ever, as you will see, turning to page 13. We are opening another new center in Walsall just next week. We have converted a former Mothercare and Peacocks on a busy mixed leisure and retail complex in the town, which shows the opportunities in the property market, so long as you are prepared to be patient. This is a really modern and vibrant environment showcasing the best of family entertainment centers. I can't wait to show you more when we meet next. In addition to Harlow and Walsall, we start work on Crewe next week, and we are awaiting local authority approval on centers in Milton Keynes and Dundee. Our pipeline beyond these centers is robust, and we are confident of opening a further four to six centers in 2023. Turning to page 14 and our people. Our people are a key part of our service delivery to customers, and we've worked hard to maintain our high levels of engagement. For our low-paid workers, we have taken the decision to increase wages in October to preempt the April rise in the living wage. This will help our colleagues manage their budgets better through the difficult winter period. We expect to mitigate the cost of the initiative through efficiency savings from reduced staff turnover and lower training costs. For our management teams, they all have an opportunity to supplement their salaries through quarterly performance-related bonus schemes. These are self-funding because they distribute a share of profit over delivery to the managers. With this year's very strong results, the payout has been good, and this has helped management retention. Turning to page 15 and our sustainability agenda. We have made some strong progress in formulating and delivering our plans on the journey to net zero. Our principal focus areas have been energy, waste, and our food supply chain. Each refurbishment and new build is implementing the latest in energy-saving technologies. We already have 100% recyclable packaging and are currently trialing a more focused recycling strategy that we expect to help us reduce our waste further. We are working with our food and drink suppliers to reduce their overall carbon footprint, but in the meantime, have invested in REDD+ carbon credits to offset our menu and make it carbon neutral. We will be able to give a full overview of our sustainability strategy at the end of the year. To summarize on page 16 before I hand over to Antony. We could not be happier with our performance in the first half of the year. We're at the very top end of hospitality and leisure in terms of like-for-like growth and have even managed to beat last year's unbeatable summer. We have delivered record profits at whatever level you choose to measure, and we have net cash. The repayment of the CLBILS marks the final relic of COVID-19, and 70 weeks after the last business closure, we are confident that we have reset the business to a new higher baseline. We are, of course, mindful of a difficult macroeconomic environment ahead for business and for some of our customers. With our value for money offering, solid balance sheet, and such a strong model for profit generation, I think we will be forgiven for still having confidence to invest in the future. We have a strong pipeline of new centers and an ongoing modernization program, which we will continue to deliver whilst maintaining our cash position. Thanks for your time. I will now hand you over to Antony on page 17, where he can take you through some detailed financials and our outlook. Thank you, Graham. I'll start on page 18 and our sales growth because to coin a phrase, it's all about that base. You'll be familiar with our story pre-COVID, where we had a consistent track record of sales growth at a compound annual growth rate of 9% per year. The impact of COVID closures and the stop-start nature of reopening is well documented, and I won't repeat it here, but the right-hand side of this chart is crucial. Our sales have recovered back to a level that is significantly ahead of 2019, and more importantly, is around 20% higher than it was projected to be had the COVID closures never happened. This is a new baseline. We've worked hard to deliver it, and everything about our business is stronger than it was in 2019. We've transformed our digital footprint. We've uplifted our customer experience. There are more activities to enjoy in our centers. Our value for money is more compelling than ever before, and our centers are modern and better invested than ever before. It's all about that base. Moving to page 19 and a bit more color on the origins of that sales growth. We're comparing here to 2019 because that is the last clean H1 in the group's history. The 52.6% sales growth comprises 6.6% from new centers with 46% like-for-like growth. As you can see, three-quarters of the growth is driven by an increased footfall, and the balance is from an increased revenue per head. We have not increased our prices to drive growth but rather relied on great value for money to encourage more customers into our centers. Customers are prepared to spend more on our other activities when they visit. The result is happier customers who feel they are getting more value for their money. Turning to page 20, where I've set out how we can use the business model to turn that sales growth into profit. The great advantage of our business model is a high gross margin, where much of our sales rely on fixed assets rather than input costs of ingredients. Therefore, growth helps optimize our yield. Even in a labor inflationary environment, we've been able to keep our variable costs as a percentage of sales pretty flat. You'll see here that labor, utilities, and other operating costs are all fairly static as a ratio, with operational efficiencies offsetting inflationary pressures. The real gain in profit comes from using the volume growth to pay for the fixed cost base. Our property is on long-term leases, so not subject to short-term inflationary movements. Our central costs do grow, particularly as we invest for the future, but not proportionately with volume. These two lines alone are around 30% more efficient with the extra footfall. The result is an EBITDA percentage after rent of 36% of sales. On page 21, we see that impressive profit progression from 2019 in absolute terms. You can see here that the profit growth is a function of the significant increase in sales. The incremental costs needed to deliver this volume growth are only just over 50% of the additional margin gained. The operating costs have increased by GBP 4.7 million compared to 2019. However, had costs increased proportionately with volume, they would have been GBP 7.2 million higher. Operating efficiencies, principally as a function of sales growth, have been more than enough to offset the GBP 1 million inflation we've experienced. It is this gearing that has contributed to more than doubling of PBT in the first half, and that's despite the drag of PBT of almost GBP 2 million that the introduction of IFRS 16 in 2020 has created. On page 22, I provided a bit more detail on our capital expenditure in the first half. The cash flow statement shows GBP 15.8 million of outgoings in the first half in respect of our strategic investment program. GBP 6.1 million of spend relates to projects in the first half. This comprises GBP 3.1 million of additions from four refurbishments, GBP 1.9 million investment in bowling enhancements, and GBP 1.1 million on a new site acquisition. In addition, we've had cash outflows of GBP 9.7 million in respect of advanced deposits made in order to secure essential equipment for new centers and refurbishments and a deposit for a freehold purchase of a property that completed just after the half year. This purchase was to acquire the freehold of a property that we were already operating but which had reached the end of its lease term. You can expect to see further additions in the second half with the opening of Walsall, commencement of works at Crewe, and four further refurbishments. However, the additional working capital payment from these payment advances and the freehold purchase are both one-off items. On page 23, I've set out the impact of these cash movements on our net debt. You will know that we have been focused on recovering our cash position, and I'm delighted to report that we ended the half with net cash of GBP 0.7 million. Remaining cash positive is an ongoing target, where we expect to generate strong cash flows and use that to fund our strategic investments for growth and to return money to shareholders. We've resumed our dividend by announcing today an interim payment in October of three pence per share, a total spend of GBP 2.1 million. Moving to page 24, where we will conclude with a look to the future and our outlook. In the current macroeconomic climate, there are certainly some challenging forecasts and predictions. However, on page 25, we've set out why we remain confident that our model will continue to deliver profitable growth. Firstly, we have a highly cash generative model that is already generating very attractive returns. We are a value for money proposition whose relative value to the competition has got stronger over the past 12 months. We have a consistent and long-term track record of sustained sales growth, and current EBITDA margins are at 35%, which insulates us well, even if sales growth does start to slow. We are, of course, mindful of the external factors, foremost of which is the significant level of inflation. Although we recognize that cost of living squeeze will reduce disposable income, we are an affordable treat with excellent value. With reducing consumer confidence, a flight to value may even be positive for us, and a visit to a Tenpin is a highly compelling proposition for customers seeking value. I've already shown that inflationary pressures in our cost base are manageable. While energy costs at current rates would prove challenging, we have fixed our prices for the next two years, allowing time for markets to stabilize. I'm confident that our model is set to weather the storm far better than many of our competitors, and I'll end on page 26 with some more detailed guidance. For the balance of the year, we are targeting flat to single-digit sales growth compared to FY 2021. That reflects our view that this new raised baseline is sustainable. We'll continue to target modest like-for-like growth into 2023. We are confident in our cash position and plan to continue our strategic investment program with six new centers over the next 18 months and eight to 10 more major refurbishments to truly set our business apart as the best family entertainment centers in the U.K. We will moderate the pace of our investments to ensure that we maintain a cash positive position and return dividends to our shareholders. We expect cost inflation in labor and food and drink and may need to pass some of this on to customers where we cannot offset it with our ongoing operational efficiencies. However, we don't expect that to compromise our underlying value for money. On the whole, despite the uncertainties in the macroeconomics, we are comfortable that the business is well positioned to deliver against its current expectations. Thanks for your time this morning, and Graham and I will now be delighted to answer any questions you may have.
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