Growing unit count helped Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. post record revenues in the third quarter despite negative same-store sales, the Dallas-based company said Tuesday.
The big-box food and entertainment brand is on track to open 15 new locations in its fiscal 2018, which ends Feb. 3. That increase will represent unit growth of 14 percent, the company said.
Same-store sales declined 1.3 percent in the third quarter ended Nov. 4.
“Driven by strong unit growth, we delivered record top-line results for the third quarter,” said Brian Jenkins, Dave & Buster’s CEO. “Comparable-store sales improved sequentially as we continued to make progress on our key strategic priorities.
“With the 2017 class of stores on track to generate one of our best cash-on-cash returns in recent history, we are more confident than ever in our ability to drive double-digit unit growth and benefit from the large opportunity ahead,” Jenkins said.
For the third quarter ended Nov. 4, Dave & Buster’s net income was $11.9 million, or 30 cents a share, down 2.5 percent from $12.2 million, or 29 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenues, however, were up 12.9 percent, to $282.2 million, from $250 million in the prior-year quarter.
Across all stores, food and beverage revenues increased 10.3 percent, to $118.8 million, from $107.7 million in the same quarter last year. Food and beverage represented 42.1 percent of total revenues in the most recent quarter compared to 43.1 percent of revenues in the prior-year period.
In the third quarter, Dave & Buster’s opened one new location in Harrisburg, Pa. So far in the fourth quarter, the company has opened stores in Milford, Conn., and Birmingham, Ala. Later this month, the company said it planned to open its final store for the year in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The company said it has 12 more stores currently under construction.
Dave & Buster's, founded in 1982, owns and operates 120 venues in 39 states, Puerto Rico and Canada.
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