Soho House Check-Up Months After Dire Report

10.05.2024 - 21:29 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Andrew Carnie / Soho House

Soho House’s share price closed Friday up 3%, with investors modestly liking what the membership club operator had to say about its recent performance.

“It’s been a solid start to 2024 … with strong demand in membership and high growth in membership revenues,” said CEO and director Andrew Carnie during an earnings call.

The cheer sharply contrasted with February, when short-seller Glasshouse Research questioned the company’s accounting practices at the hospitality company.

Here are five key points from the company’s first-quarter results and earnings call.

At the company’s 43 flagship Soho House membership clubs, membership was up 17% year-over-year to 198,000.

At its U.S. clubs, members pay between $1,000 and about $5,000 a year, plus any food, drink, or other upsells. Executives said that they had been able to increase prices for new members more substantially than for existing members without denting growth.

The company’s board last fall began to consider selling the business or taking it private, the company revealed in February. When asked about this Friday, executives didn’t have more to add.

“Last fall, the board set up a special committee of independent members of the board to assess certain strategic transactions,” said Thomas Allen, chief financial officer. “The company will make an announcement if and when there’s something to announce.”

The company wants members to spend more on food and other services at its properties, and executives pointed to encouraging signs.

“In-house revenues were lower given macro conditions,” Carnie said. “However, throughout the quarter, we saw sequentially stronger in-house revenue performance, and that trend has continued into April, strengthening our confidence in the year ahead.”

The company’s biggest push is to improve food and service and to renovate or refurbish key properties while reducing overflow at its most popular locations.

A trend of people taking the month of January off from alcohol consumption had an impact on Soho House earnings.

In-house revenue was down 5% for the quarter, with a heavy impact from reduced alcohol sales in January.

“I’d say January was down high single-digits, February was down middle single-digits, and then March and April have improved to [being] down low single-digits,” Allen said.

The company did see its largest-ever jump in sales of non-alcoholic cocktails in January, but not enough to make up the lost business.

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