By Phoebe Williams
Lucky Voice, the karaoke chain, has announced plans to open in London’s Waterloo, continuing its plans of growth and investment with a £1.6m, 3,200 square foot unit in The Sidings despite admitting the difficult conditions affecting the hospitality industry.
Lucky Voice Waterloo will be the brand’s fifth London venue, joining other sites in Soho, Islington, Holborn and Liverpool Street.
The karaoke bar also has locations in Brighton and Dubai.
This announcement follows the £300,000 refurbishment of its Soho site in 2022 and the £1.2m opening of its Liverpool Street branch earlier this year.
Sales data from the Liverpool Street venue revealed that it was Lucky Voice’s most successful launch ever, as it recorded first month revenue – 12 per cent up on the previous record held by the Holborn site in 2019.
Last October Lucky Voice set out plans to grow to 10 venues, including building a ‘significantly expanded’ presence in London, and opening the doors on new sites in Manchester and Birmingham.
There were also aims to further franchise the social entertainment brand in the Middle East and North Africa.
Speaking toCity A.M. a year on, Charlie Elek, managing director of Lucky Voice, confirmed these plans are still on track, with further plans to invest in locations in the US.
“We’re stepping up the plans for expansion in the US,” he said. “We’ve seen how our competitors in the social [and] leisure space like Puttshack, Flight Club, Swingers, Electric Shuffle have moved over there and done well so we’re looking at different options there too. MENA is still on our radar.”
Elek said the future plans are designed to make Lucky Voice into a globally recognised name.
Addressing the hospitality industry’s worries surrounding the current economic climate, Elek said: “People are going out less but still enjoying big occasions – birthday parties, hens, stags, work events. We offer a relief at a difficult time.”
However he admitted that rail strikes had been a problem for the business.
“The main thing that has hurt us has been train strikes and what that does for footfall and bookings but we’ve looked at Waterloo for a long time and this is an amazing site for the next 10-20 years and beyond, very confident we’re going to make it work.”
