UK-based Benugo surpasses pre-pandemic turnover after record 2023 sales

A Benugo café inside John Lewis, Oxford Street | Photo credit: Benugo

Record 2023 sales and an ‘excellent’ pipeline of new business have positioned Benugo as a ‘more streamlined, focused and profitable company’, the London-based café chain has said.   
 

Benugo achieved 25% year-on-year revenue growth to reach £123.5m ($158.3m) in the 12 months ending 27 December 2023 – its highest-ever turnover and 2% higher than 2019 levels. 

The high street café operator and catering provider posted 31% year-on-year net profit growth to £44.6m ($57.1m) and saw operating profit rise from £3.7m ($4.7m) in 2022 to £10.7m ($13.7m). 
 

“The turnover recorded in 2023 is the highest we have achieved in our 25-year history. We continued the work from 2022 in exiting poor performing locations that had been negatively impacting us and worked with our key clients to drive mutual benefits, as well as winning new profitable business,” Benugo said in its accounts filing. 
 

Benugo also invested in staff training in 2023 to ‘drive productivity as we strive to become a more streamlined and focused company’, the filing added. 

Founded in 1998, Benugo operates 18 cafés across the UK, including nine within John Lewis department stores. The business also operates more than 30 coffee shops and restaurants at prominent public spaces and venues, including London Zoo, The Natural History Museum and London Coliseum. 

In October 2023, the business entered the UK at-home coffee market with its first single origin retail coffee blend. 

Benugo is owned by UK-based hospitality group WSH, which also operates European foodservice provider BaxterStorey and 13-store London specialty coffee shop and wine bar concept Notes, the latter of which it acquired for an undisclosed sum in November 2022.   
 

A separate Companies House filing showed Notes achieved 123% year-on-year revenue growth in 2023 to reach £7.1m ($9m). However, the boutique café and bar group posted a £505,000 ($646,773) loss, which it attributed to the opening of a new central London coffee shop in September 2023 and ‘significant investment’ in additional coffee roasting capacity at the end of last year.