Aegis Brands-owned coffee chain Bridgehead has credited heightened consumer footfall and an expanding wholesale channel after posting strong third quarter revenues
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Bridgehead is launching an off-premise catering service for offices and event centres in Ottawa | Photo credit: Aegis Brands
Aegis Brands has credited increased café footfall and an expanded retail and catering offering for driving Bridgehead’s third quarter sales growth.
Bridgehead, which operates 21 stores across Ottawa, achieved an 18% increase in revenues on the same period last year to reach CA$3.4m ($2.5m).
Same-store sales in the three months ended 30 September 2022 grew 17% which Bridgehead attributed to increased customer footfall. Total outlet sales rose 20% to CA$2.6m ($2.2m).
Although consumer footfall is returning to its stores, Bridgehead is also continuing to diversify its sales channels.
The coffee chain’s wholesale channel, boosted in its second quarter following a new distribution agreement with Canadian supermarket chain Longo’s, achieved sales growth of 21% to reach CA$287,000 ($213,000).
The brand is now available at 136 grocery stores throughout Ontario compared to less than 60 this time last year.
Additionally, Bridgehead is seeking to catalyse a return-to-office working across Canada by launching an off-premise catering service for offices and event centres in Ottawa.
“Although the sales are going in the right direction and picking up momentum, the Bridgehead team has also been finding new revenue sources within our coffeehouses. Initiatives such as off-premise catering and local vendor pop-ups within the stores have been introduced to supplement the top line sales. The downtown Ottawa traffic is still greatly reduced compared to 2019 and will continue to be until the federal government workers return to the office on a more regular basis," said Steven Pelton, President and CEO, Aegis Brands.
Bridgehead is currently Aegis’ sole brand. However, the Ontario-based group is expected to acquire St. Louis Bar and Grill for CA$50m ($37m) on 17 November 2022. St. Louis is a Toronto based franchised casual dining bar & grill company, comprising 74 locations across Canada.
Aegis Brands previously operated Canadian coffee chain Second Cup Coffee but sold the business to restaurant franchiser Foodtastic Inc. for CA $14m ($11m) in April 2021.