Dave & Buster’s Entertainment has announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 4 February 2025, and board chair and interim CEO Kevin Sheehan has said the leadership team is “systematically unwinding” previous changes that led to a more than 10 per cent drop in revenues for the period.
Results for the fourth quarter show the FEC chain’s revenue decreased 10.8% from the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2023. Overall, total revenue for the year was $2.1 billion, a decrease of 3.3 per cent from the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA of $506.2 million for the year decreased 8.9% from fiscal 2023.
A back-to-basics strategy
“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,” says Sheehan.
“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. For the avoidance of doubt, our strategic plan is the right plan; execution against it was flawed.
“We are highly confident that our current actions will lead to significantly improved revenue, adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and shareholder value in the months ahead.”
Remodelling and expansion
Sheehan says that results for March and April have notably improved and that the company expects results to continue to improve in the coming month. He adds:
“The current leadership team and the full Board are laser focused on managing this business to drive both revenue growth and free cash flow generation. Our team could not be more excited by the opportunities we see ahead to meaningfully improve the operating performance of the business and shareholder value.”
In the fourth quarter, the company launched five new stores, bringing the total to 14 new locations for the fiscal year 2024 (11 Dave & Buster’s and three Main Events). Additionally, it remodelled 15 Dave & Buster’s stores in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024 and year-to-date in fiscal year 2025. Since the remodelling program began in 2023, 44 Dave & Buster’s stores have been remodelled.
In December 2024, the company launched its first franchise in Bengaluru, India. So far, it has formed international franchise partnership agreements for over 35 stores committed to development, with locations currently underway in five countries. It expects to open at least six more franchise units within the next year.
