Loungers

We teamed up with Loungers to help them introduce their offbeat, food-focussed café-bars to cities all across the UK, seeking quirky properties that suited the image that they wanted to create.

The challenge:

The founders of Loungers — a collection of charming, gently eccentric drinking and dining spaces — decided it was time to expand their brand’s reach. Their goal was to bring Loungers to a range of central or secondary shopping locations across the country.

However, in a changing consumer market, it was proving difficult to find locations that could still encourage footfall despite tough trading conditions.

Our insight:

Renowned for our creativity when it comes to finding unique premises for the right price, we were recommended to the Loungers team by a top private equity house. Our experts conducted widespread and detailed assessments, pinpointing areas where all-day dining competition was in short supply. We then followed up with location-specific research into whether the Loungers concept would appeal to locals. Our negotiation skills and experience were put to good use, ensuring that properties were secured on the best terms and in the right time frames.

The outcome:

Guided by our detailed expansion strategy and with the help of our skilled negotiators, the Loungers concept has expanded not just across the South, but across the whole of the UK. The business continues to flourish and grow, and the group has gone on to win numerous industry awards.

“The one thing we couldn’t do by ourselves was scour every neighbourhood in every city, up and down the country. We were incredibly impressed by Insight’s detailed knowledge of the market – but by also their understanding of our requirements. The places they found ticked all our boxes – from financial to operational – and were bang on brand.”

Alex Reilley, Executive Vice Chairman and Co-Founder