LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Escape rooms operator Escape Hunt saw profits improve in its first trading year since its readmission to AIM, leading the group to take steps towards expanding into at least five further locations across the UK.
Escape Hunt, which organises "escape the room" games for corporate customers and consumers, improved pre-tax profits 37.14% to £384,000 on an 18% higher revenue of £1.3m, of which £872,000 was generated by its newly acquired businesses.

However, Escape Hunt still posted a loss for the trading year with an LBITDA of £737,000 and a loss per share of 24.77p, widened from the previous year's figure of 18.75p.

The London-based firm, which has franchises in 26 countries, some still in pre-opening stage, opened "a number of owner-operated sites, with more to follow in the coming months" throughout 2017, opening its first UK owner-operated site in Bristol back in March, closely followed by Birmingham and Leeds, and has earmarked eight further sites in the UK for expansion, with leases signed on five of them.

Non-executive chairman Richard Rose, said, "Our franchise network is performing to plan and we are now ready to explore further opportunities. The growth prospects of the escape rooms industry are larger than we initially envisaged, and our pre-eminent position enables us to view the future with confidence."

Cash balances as of 31 December totalled £10.65m, up 25.6%.

As of 1200 BST, shares had ticked up 0.45% to 114.01p.

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