Dave & Buster’s interim CEO has promised to "unwind mistakes" made in the past as the FEC chain saw a more than 10 per cent drop in revenues to conclude its financial year.
Its revenues stood at US$534.5m for Q4 of FY2024, with comparable store sales decreasing by 9.4 per cent.
Looking at the year in total, its total revenue of $2.1bn was down 3.3 per cent from the previous year, with sales down 7.2 per cent.
Kevin Sheehan, board chair and interim CEO, said that the company was taking action to “unwind mistakes” and that the company foresaw “clear opportunities” in the future. He said: “While we are disappointed by our results in the fourth quarter, we are very encouraged by the clear opportunities we have identified over the past few months and the most recent trends in the business since taking actions to unwind mistakes and make appropriate changes.
“Previous leadership, while well intentioned, made significant and ill-advised changes to marketing, food and beverage, operations, remodels and games investment that negatively impacted the business. The current leadership team has been systematically unwinding these mistakes and pursuing a ‘back to basics’ strategy while making high confidence improvements to the key areas of the business entirely in line with our previously communicated strategic plan.”
The company opened five new stores in the fourth quarter of 2024, adding to the 10 it had opened earlier in the year. It also remodelled 15 of its stores across the same period, for a total of 44 remodels since the programme began in 2023.
December 2024 saw the company open its first franchise location in Begaluru, India, taking the number of partnership agreements to more than 35, with sites across five countries currently under development.
Looking ahead to FY2025, the company expects total capital expenditures of less than $220m.
