Five-a-side football pitches operator Goal Soccer Centres PLC (LON:GOAL) staged a second half comeback in 2016.
The shares were up like Andy Carroll at the far post – not too gracefully, but effectively – as the group revealed that it returned to like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in the second half of last year.
For the year as a whole, sales were up 1.6% to £33.5mln from £33.9mln in 2015.
The second half saw LFL sales growth of 2.9% from a year earlier after the first half saw LFL sales decline 2.0%.
Underlying profit before tax eased to £7.8mln from £8.3mln in 2015, but was up 4.5% year-on-year in the second half of 2016.
The group said its grandly named “arena modernisation programme” is well advanced, with 136 pitches refurbished last year.
Its new “Clubhouse 2020” concept has been rolled out to three sites, and should it prove a success will be rolled out further over the next 18 months.
“These results are early but encouraging evidence of our new strategy starting well. The business is on its way to being fit for purpose," said chairman Nick Basing clearly taking it one game at a time.
Chief executive Mark Jones said the group’s second club has been successfully launched in the USA, and construction of a third club is scheduled to start in the first half of this year.