Red Engine, the team behind experiential bars Flight Club Darts and Electric Shuffle, announced its full year 2023 financial results today. The results reveal impressive growth for the business as the company reports that Red Engine sales were up 26% against 2022.
Red Engine, supported by its franchise partners, State of Play Hospitality and NightOwl Entertainment, opened four new sites in 2023 across the UK, US and Australia, taking the total Red Engine and partners estate to 25 venues – 15 owned and 10 partner-owned. Red Engine venues and partner venues sales combined, exceeded £100M for 2023, up 28% YOY, with like-for-like sales increasing by 10%. While Red Engine-owned venue sales totalled £67M.
State of Play Hospitality is leading the growth of the Flight Club brand in the United States, while all Electric Shuffle venues in the U.S. are Red Engine-owned. NightOwl Entertainment is the Flight Club franchise partner for expansion across Australia.
Ross Shepley-Smith, CFO at Red Engine said, “As we head towards the 10-year anniversary of the first Flight Club, it’s incredibly rewarding to see the business grow from strength to strength. We opened two new Scottish venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh last year and our franchise partners opened a further two sites in Fremantle, Australia and Denver, United States. All our sites hit new sales records in 2023 and our newest Scottish additions to the estate far exceeded our expectations,” said Shepley-Smith.
“With a pipeline of eight more locations planned for 2024, we look forward to continuing to grow our brands, but more importantly, remaining focussed on our mission to make groups of friends everywhere ridiculously happy,” continued Shepley-Smith.
The year ahead will be a busy one for Red Engine and partners as they plan to expand to 33 venues. Red Engine will open Flight Club Oxford and Liverpool and Electric Shuffle Manchester and New York, while its franchise partners have Flight Club Philadelphia, Washington, Sydney and Melbourne on the docket.
Flight Club Darts recently announced the news that it had reached the incredible milestone of 500M darts thrown.
