Goals Soccer shoots for new centres

Goals halted its rapid expansion in late 2012 and 2013 in order to repay debt and focus on improving returns from its existing assets. And progress on that front has been made - like-for-like sales rose 3 per cent last year and net debt fell to £46.4m from £54m at the end of June 2012. Meanwhile, adjust for £6.9m of costs in 2012 relating to an unsuccessful bid approach, and operating profit rose 5 per cent to £11.8m.

Goals is now ready to expand again and will roll out one new centre in the UK this year and next, as well as one site in the US in 2015 and two sites in 2016. It should also help the company renegotiate its debt facility. Moreover, with parts of the new centres being prefabricated off-site, Goals expects an efficiency boost. "We've reduced the capital costs by 35 per cent and almost halved the build time," says managing director Keith Rogers.

Broker N+1 Singer has upped its pre-tax profit forecast by 4 per cent for 2014 to £10.6m, although the higher share count reduces the broker's EPS estimate by 8 per cent to roughly 14p.