Morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking the time to come and attend our half year's presentation. I must say it's really nice to be back presenting face-to-face, particularly when the results are pretty good face-to-face. I'm hiding behind the phone, but a welcome nevertheless to those who couldn't make it in person. I'm Stephen Burns, Chief Executive. I'll be taking you through the key financial and operational highlights that we've experienced during the half. I'll also touch on the small amount of COVID impact that we have on the period under review. I'm joined by Laurence, our CFO, who will take you through the numbers and provide some commentary on risk mitigation.
We'll close the meeting with a summary, brief outlook and then do our best to answer any questions that you might have for us. Turning to the presentation, looking at the H1 2022 highlights. The first half of the financial year has been a record period for the group, and we are delighted with the performance. We had total revenue of GBP 91.3 million in the half. It's a record number, which is like-for-like sales growth of 26.8%. That's obviously versus the last normalized period of trading in 2019. Average spend per game, GBP 10.52. We closed the period with GBP 49.6 million of net cash. Group-adjusted EBITDA of GBP 31 million and profit before tax of GBP 24.8 million.
I'm really pleased to announce that we'll be reinstating our dividend. We'll be paying 3 pence per share. Just a reminder, it's 50% profit after tax on a one-third, two-thirds split. Three pence per share divvy for the first half, off the back of GBP 100 million of total revenue and GBP 27 million of profit after tax. Just a little bit on COVID on slide four. Other than in Scotland, all COVID restrictions were removed during the period under review. Other than a really small leveling off of demand when the Omicron variant took hold, and government guidance changed, mainly around Christmas parties really, because we saw a very small impact to trade. The biggest challenges really were around team absence, which we'll touch on a little bit later in the presentation.
While some customers very quickly returned to their pre-COVID behavior, there was still a large amount of people, particularly our elderly and special needs groups, that were still nervous about returning to indoor leisure venues. The staged removal of the COVID protocols that we had in place were appreciated. We've retained the high quality lane dividers we installed during the height of the pandemic. And based on the feedback from our customers, actually people really like them. We've just refined the process, reduced the height of them a little bit, but still kept them in place for the new site openings and the refurbishments that we've done. I suppose looking at the results, an obvious question would be, is this a structural change to profit and demand?
In the period post-lockdown, it's worth reminding ourselves, trade levels were bolstered significantly by a lack of other options from our customers. They were restricted to U.K. holiday destinations. There was weak cinema product. Smaller operators of indoor leisure-based businesses were slow to reopen. and the weather, if you cast your mind back, was really favorable, for indoor leisure experiences in that there was quite a lot of rain around. Customers were also really well-funded. There were low levels of personal debt, and back then there was really low inflation. We did a fantastic job during that period, capitalizing on the opportunities this presented us, and we showcased our product to customers that hadn't visited us for a number of years. Now, that all helped us deliver the record results that I talked about on the earlier slide.
While I'm confident that there is a structural move towards experiential leisure by our core customer group, the COVID pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated. Using 2019 as a benchmark to grow our business from is, to me, the most sensible way forward for forecasting performance for the remainder of FY 2022 and then going forward into FY 2023. In other COVID-related news, thanks to the very hard work and dogged determination of members of the Tenpin Bowling Proprietors' Association, which was led by Anthony, the CFO at Ten Entertainment Group.
We're really grateful to receive the correct recognition by HMRC and receive the VAT concessions that all other leisure operators got. It's not insubstantial either in terms of what we're getting back. We're claiming back GBP 5.8 million in cash for the prior year, and GBP 3 million in cash for the current year. Hand over to Laurence to talk through the numbers.
On slide six, we just talk through the financial performance over the last four years, so three years, and also in some of the metrics. It's pre-IFRS 16 revenues, as Steve mentioned, GBP 91.3 million. Now that is statutory revenue of GBP 100.2 million, which includes the reduced rate of VAT claim, as Steve just mentioned. The GBP 91.3 million is up 36.3% on the same period in 2019 and up a massive 660% versus H1 last year for anybody that's looking for a comparative to FY 2021. The growth versus 2019 was driven through like-for-like growth, 26.8%, plus the continued strong performance for new centers. This strong trading performance, coupled with our usual discipline on costs, led to a record group-adjusted EBITDA on a pre-IFRS 16 basis of GBP 31 million.
It is worth just saying that all of the commentary that we go through today will be excluding the reduced rate of VAT unless otherwise specified. Okay. The EBITDA margin was 34%. Statutory operating profit, which includes the reduced rate of VAT, was up 12.8 percentage points to 37.8. Statutory EPS was 15.82 pence per share, and excluding the VAT, it was 11.96 pence per share. As you can see on slide seven, the like-for-like performance was driven through different areas. We saw game volumes were up 18.1% versus FY 2019 on a like-for-like basis as customers continue to seek value family leisure activities, while average spend was up 7.5% to GBP 10.52.
Now it is just worth again, just splitting out this VAT benefit. For prior periods, it's worth GBP 5.8 million on revenue, and for this year it's worth GBP 3 million. In total GBP 8.8 million. From a PBT perspective, it's worth GBP 8.6 million. From an earnings perspective, it's worth GBP 6.6 million because all of it is subject to corporation tax. While there was a marginal VAT benefit in other areas for food and non-alcoholic drinks, as you can see from the waterfall, this was only worth GBP 1.1 million, which is 1.6% on the like for like. Post that VAT benefit on food and drink, average spend grew 5.8%. Now to put it in context, the average bowling price only increased by an effective 1.7 percentage points versus 2019.
Food revenues were up 8.4% despite an average menu price reduction versus 2019 of 10.9%. Volumes were up over 18% in terms of food. Our successful amusements investment, along with the marginally longer wait times due to increased utilization of the lane, amusement revenues were up 43.6% on a like-for-like basis. Now the top four months ever recorded were in the first half, and while all months were strong, it is just worth wanting to pull out February, which was GBP 17.7 million, the second highest revenue month after August of 2021. Now the reason I want to pull it out is that we saw something we hadn't seen in a long time, which is where half term in February is sometimes split over two weeks.
This was not just a north or south divide, this was an intercounty, intercity divide, and therefore for a capacity constrained business like ours, this is a panacea. In our view, it's worth putting this benefit out because it was worth about GBP 2.3 million for the month. For the first half, the average revenue for a like for like center was a record GBP 1.45 million. Now onto the income statement on slide eight. We do split out here, as you can see from the first column, the statutory numbers. However, the references to the movement on FY 2019 are all versus the second column, which excludes all of the VAT bowling benefit. Gross profit margin was down 80 basis points versus FY 2019, but that was absolutely in line with our expectations given the revenue mix and growth.
Our GP margin and food GP margins were within 20 basis points of FY 2019. It was the strong growth of amusements, as I mentioned just before, which was up 43.6%. Whilst bowling was up 23.6%, obviously the lower margin on amusements means that there's slightly lower GP margin, but significantly higher GP pounds, which is where we always focus our time and effort. Overall admin costs, excluding depreciation and amortization, were up GBP 4.3 million, and the largest increase was in employee costs, which were up GBP 3.1 million.
Of that GBP 3.1 million, GBP 1.7 million of it was like for like centers, and that was due to both rate increase in terms of pay rates versus 2019, because you've got the compound effect of two, three years, and also higher revenues and therefore more labor. The balance of the increase on employee cost increases was to do with new center openings at GBP 1.4 million. Total property costs accounted for under IFRS 16 were GBP 15.5 million, only an increase of GBP half a million. Actually like for like centers were backwards by GBP 1.9 million, and that's to do with the rates movement. Obviously rates have now returned as of April 2022. Alongside all other costs, energy costs continue to be a focus for the group.
As a reminder, electricity costs are hedged to the end of FY 2024, and we're currently paying around 30% of the market value. We continue to work closely with our landlords to install solar on more centers. Eight are now benefiting from solar panels with seven more planned before the end of the year. Corporate costs includes all central costs as well as the outperformance bonus for our centers. Total corporate costs increased by GBP 5.9 million when compared to FY 2019. The main driver of this was this outperformance from our centers, and we've accrued a record GBP 3 million in the first half for outperformance bonuses for our centers. This is testament to the hard work commitment of our amazing center teams across the estate.
The other increases have been within marketing spend and also a few more heads in our support center as we continue to expand our reach and invest within our teams. All of this led to a record group adjusted EBITDA pre-IFRS 16, as I mentioned before, of GBP 31 million at a margin of 34%. The average center level EBITDA for half one was a record GBP 661,000. Finance costs continued to benefit from the low margin rates on the unutilized RCF, and obviously while it remains unutilized, we are not affected by any movements within the Bank of England base rate or the SONIA rate. With an effective tax rate of 17.7% due to the super-deduction, earnings of GBP 20.4 million excluding the VAT benefit at an EPS of 11.96 pence a share.
Now we wanted to set out on slide nine, as Steve mentioned earlier, around inflationary pressures on the cost profile of the business. One of the best ways we can do that is to present how the costs currently look as a % of revenue, and then the key areas of potential impact on our plans for managing this. Now as you can see from the graph, the highest % of sales is payroll at 17.5%, and this has increased in line with expectations at an increase on a pound basis of 5.8% in the past year. We're forecasting a similar increase into FY 2023, and we continued with our team member hourly incentive scheme during the year, whereby hourly team members are rewarded for hitting target base and control to upsells, waste recycling, and also service metrics.
We paid this out 60% of all of our team members during the year. Now, that equates to an incremental amount over and above their pay of an extra 6%. The next largest cost is property costs at 16.9%. Now, this does include electricity and energy, as we've mentioned previously. Now, of this 16.9%, 7 percentage points of it is rent. Rent, in the main, is based on an open market value for bowling use, and therefore, subject to very minimal increases. We do have some centers where their rent increases are based on CPI. Before everyone gasps in the room, we are cap and collared at a 1%, 4% on that, so we're not subject to large increases as we go forward. Finally, other commodity cost increases.
Now, it's worth just noting, as Steve spoke about before, 50% of our revenue is bowling, which is not subject to any cost of goods sold, and amusements is also a fixed number. 75% of our revenue is not subject to any cost of goods sold. Now, we have seen some food and drink cost increases. We continue to manage it closely, knowing that a 5% increase would impact GP pounds by GBP 300 thousand, assuming that we did nothing in terms of menu reengineering or in terms of price. Finally, we're also starting to see increases in the cost of new builds and refurbishments of circa 5%, but we continue to we ensure we'll get our same strong return on investment, and I will go into more detail later on.
All of the performance we've spoken about before drove record free cash in the period with group adjusted operating cash flow of GBP 30.7 million. Now, we have got a working capital benefit of GBP 2.1 million with center-level bonuses, so those are accrued in the year. 25% of it is paid in the first half, so it's actually being paid in a couple of days time. The rest of it is paid in November. We will have that working capital benefit until the end of the year, and it will probably increase as we move towards the end of the year, continue to accrue bonus. The group spent a total of GBP 4.1 million on maintenance CapEx, including GBP 1.4 million on Pins on Strings and also GBP 0.7 million on the installation of the solar panels I mentioned earlier.
Net CapEx in total was GBP 11.1 million. We spent an extra 1.2 on refurbs versus where we had before, with Glasgow, Springfield Quay, Keighley, and Birmingham Rubery completed, as well as a rebrand of the AMF in Shrewsbury. At least a further four centers will be refurbished in the year. We have already completed two since the end of the half in Glasgow, Coatbridge and also in Bolton. The returns on these are expected to continue to exceed the group's hurdle rate of 33%. New center CapEx, as you can see, was GBP 5.8 million. That's in relation to both the new centers that opened in the half, so Hollywood Bowl Resorts World in Birmingham and also Harrow Puttstars, and also a significant amount spent for the Belfast site, which opened during April.
Given the strong trading period, our cash balance as at the end of April is GBP 55.2 million, and in line with our capital allocation policy, the group is pleased to be able to reinstate the dividend, as Steve mentioned earlier, at GBP 0.03 per share. Now, as a reminder of our capital allocation policy, just on the following slide, our priorities continue to be investing in our existing centers through maintenance CapEx, as well as our successful refurbishment process, the opportunity for new centers as well as acquisitions. All of this provides growth opportunities in terms of profit and also further cash. Then we'll look to the further use of the free cash flow through special dividends, if we have the ability to do so.
The outlook for the rest of the year, we continue to look for opportunities for both acquisition and new centers as well as refurbishments, and we're ready to take full advantage of those opportunities as they come along. We're pleased with performance to date, but we do expect a more modest growth in the summer due to increased foreign travel and like-for-like growth for the full year of mid- to late-teens double-digit growth versus FY 2019. Finally, during FY 2022, we continue with our successful capital deployment program. We'll continue to open up new centers, invest in refurbishment, and also continue on solar panels and adding more pins on strings at the centers.
Thanks, Laurence. On slide 14, we sort of lay out our growth strategy. As we emerged from the pandemic, we did take the opportunity to review and refresh this strategy to ensure that it remained relevant for the post-COVID operating environment. Our strategic priorities can be summarized around three key initiatives. First one, investing in our estate, growing our business organically. Second, new site openings and strategic acquisitions. Thirdly, growing our business sustainably. I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made on each during the half. We're really lucky in our business. We've got a really unique, inclusive experience that appeals to a very wide demographic, and we've got a very low ticket price point.
That puts us in a really strong position when there's a squeeze on consumer disposable income, and we saw that during the last recession. I was around during that period in sort of 2010, 2013, the teeth of the last consumer recession. We saw that our core customer group prioritized their leisure spending on an all-inclusive family entertainment experience. The market today, however, is slightly different in that there's been a proliferation of new experiential leisure offerings that are out there that weren't around during the last recession. It's a much more competitive environment. It's really key that actually sales and service superiority remains at the forefront of what we're doing within our organization and our business.
When you combine that with our unique product, that's a real differentiator that's out there. Despite the significant increase in demand that we experienced during the half, we actually still managed to grow the overall satisfaction levels of our customers by 5.5 percentage points versus 2019, with 91% of all of our customers leaving our venues satisfied with the experience. Looking at slide 16 and how we're using technology, we have made some real strides forward during the digital journey in the half. With the increased footfall, we have the unique opportunity to grow our already impressive database. Our database helps us in a number of ways.
One, it helps us mitigate against more challenging trading conditions like when the sun's shining, as well as providing us with a rich seam of information to help us increase the effectiveness of our digital advertising through customer match, and improving our conversion rates and returns from digital marketing spend. Post-COVID, we saw a huge shift to online bookings. We improved the customer journey online, through more investment on our website as a consequence and as well as our back-end booking systems, where we simplified the inquiry and sales progress. That's helped us drive quite significantly our web conversions as a result.
We also upgraded the Wi-Fi in all our centers to improve the customer experience, as well as giving us the bandwidth to install other revenue-enhancing products like the lane order systems as well as contactless amusement payment options, that I'll touch on in the next slide. We've continued to roll out the in-center digital signage initiative as part of our refurbishment program. That gives us the ability to change the upsell prompts for food and drink as the day part progresses, and the different customer groups that we have coming to our center changes the during the times of the day. We've also continued to roll out pins on strings, as Laurence mentioned.
This sort of cost-saving, capacity-enhancing technology is now in 34 of our centers, and we've completed 7 installs so far this year, and we've got a further 9 planned for the rest of this year. We've still got quite a lot of runway left to go, which is delivering returns ahead of the expectations. Despite the backdrop of increasing prices in food and beverage within hospitality, we chose to continue with the simplified menu that we launched post the lockdowns. It's keeping our food prices on key items like the burgers and the high volume items 15% below where they were in 2019. This was a customer-led decision born on the back of the positive feedback that we'd had from our customers and our guests.
While choice hasn't doubted we've been compromised, obviously by reducing the menu, we're actually able to deliver the food much more quickly with a higher level of consistency, and at the new price point, actually deliver in line with our customers' expectations. We also have real price elasticity to help us soften the impact to margin of any further wholesale inflationary pressures and to give our pricing a bit of context at the table, on the bottom of that slide, which just shows how we compare versus other operators that we share the leisure parks with. We've refined the menu a little during the half as we look for continual improvement.
We've added snacks and sharers to the lanes menu, and food revenue was actually up 8.4% versus the same period in 2019, despite the significant drop in prices that we put through. Bar revenue's been up 23% versus H1 2019. The performance for our amusement areas has been truly outstanding during the half. Revenue's up 43.6% versus the same period in 2019, with spend per game upon amusements 21.7%. With the increased demand that we had on our centers during the half, we did see wait times for lanes extended, which certainly helped drive the majority of the outperformance that we enjoyed in the amusement areas. As customers are waiting for lanes, they kill 5-10 minutes in the amusement areas and spending much more.
We have also however made some big changes in our amusement areas to capitalize on the opportunity the increased demand presented. As part of the refurbishments, we look to rationalize space and increase amusement density. It's been GBP 1 to play an amusement machine for the last 15 years, so inflation has therefore made it cheaper for customers to play a machine. Now, the good thing about that is more customers play more, but only if there's the right level of quality and machine density. We've added 220 new machines during the half. We've got a bit more detail later in the presentation with a case study of what an increased amusement area is worth to us.
We've also done our best to remove as many barriers to play as possible, rolling out familiar payment options like the yellow Nayax boxes that you see on vending machines and parking lot ticket machines. We've now got them on all our change machines, where you'll just go and tap your debit card for 10- or 20-pound coins, making it easier for customers to get access to coins. We've installed them on all of our pool tables as well. Now 60% of all of the revenue from our pool tables goes through the Nayax technology, and that's given us the opportunity to take price. From GBP 1 to GBP 1.25 to GBP 1.75, depending on location, which is still actually great value for money for a two-player game.
We've got plans to roll out the Nayax boxes to other amusement machines where they're two-player like air hockey, that kind of stuff, during the second half of this year. Looking at team, Hollywood Bowl is a people business. If we don't have the very best talent focused on delivering a fantastic experience for our customers, we won't be able to deliver on our growth ambitions. We've actually been able to recruit an additional 15% more team members than we had pre-COVID, and that's in a very competitive labor market. Hospitality team members don't have the ability to work from home. You know, they don't have the ability to have the same flexible working arrangements to the same extent as their office workers.
They don't have the ability to benefit from the reduction in travel costs and commute time saved that a lot of their office-based counterparts have done. The industry is losing talent as a consequence. It's therefore a really big focus for us to attract and retain top hospitality talent. We've refocused our efforts on team development. We've an industry-leading talent development program affording all team members the opportunity to develop into senior leadership roles, and we've enrolled over 100 of our team members onto that program during the half. In addition to the 5.8% pay rise we gave to all our salaried team, we introduced new bonus schemes paying out to all team members on the delivery of sales, service, and environmental objectives.
Our hourly paid team members have received over GBP 450,000 in bonuses over the first six months of this year, and our center management team's over GBP 815,000. We're in the process of refreshing our employer brand using sales and marketing techniques that we've refined for customer acquisition to keep our team member pipeline strong, and we changed our employee support provider using a company better able to support our team well-being objectives. Looking at ESG, I wanted to give you a quick update on the performance versus the ESG targets we set ourselves for the year. Now we do take the role our centers play in their communities very seriously and work closely with special needs and concessionary groups to make our centers as accessible as possible to every part of the community.
Over GBP 1.5 million of concessionary discounts were redeemed in the half, and we extended the discount periods for this year to include all peak trading days in response to customer feedback. I've just talked you through the improvements that we've made on our objective for creating outstanding workplaces, but lay out the details on the table for your reference. I'm also delighted with the progress that we've made on our environmental initiatives. 76% of the waste that we generate was recycled in the half. Now that's been driven by the change, in the main, by team behavioral change. It's a key performance objective supported by financial bonuses. On the next slide, just lay out what we've been doing around our sustainability efforts.
Eight centers now have solar arrays on their roof, completed three installations during the half, and we're on track to have 15 centers with solar by the end of 2022. That will give us the capacity to generate over 4.6 MWh of electricity per year. Just to give those numbers a bit of context, the group used 18.2 MWh during 2019. Each center that's got solar tech has the opportunity to generate 30% of the energy it needs, and then it feeds back to the grid the energy that it is over generating. Paybacks on the tech are ahead of our expectations.
Short to medium term, we're protected from the energy cost inflations having hedged out at the end of 2024, and we've actually been able to sell back to the grid at spot price, the capacity that we no longer need due to the fact that we're generating more through solar. We also introduced an electric vehicle company car scheme for our regional support team, making full use of the government, electric vehicle tax break, and we expect 32% of our business miles to be driven by electric vehicles in the year.
Thanks, Steve. Onto slide 22. Our refurbishments have continued to pay back at market leading rates. Now we're simply gaining performance in those centers that have been invested in the last 12 months, up 13% and like-for-like up 17.8%. Like-for-like revenue growth is nearly 40% in these refurbishments, and these centers were already in the top 20 of our estate. As you can see from the graph, the ROIs continue to be above 33%, and along with the 3 completed in H1, as I mentioned earlier, we will do at least a further 4 in H2. Our pipeline means we get to centers every 5-7 years, and we're also now working on rebranding all of our AMF centers to Hollywood Bowl.
Although some of the leases do need reviewing as part of that before we finalize them. One of the successes of our refurbishment program is adapting based on our customers as well as, and really importantly, a constant review and ownership from our center managers. They run the centers, and therefore they provide the feedback on opportunities when it comes to refurbishment. It's not a centrally run scheme. As we've mentioned previously, the combination of the bar and diner areas provide not only increased space for amusements, but also marginal labor efficiencies. As Steve mentioned earlier, a case study of one of those refurbishments is on slide 23. Birmingham Rubery, I should have asked the question, who recognizes the center from these three pictures?
Birmingham Rubery was a spend of GBP 410,000, and it's a great example of how we continue to review space optimization, ensuring our center is set up for the customer in the best way. The combined bar and diner has seen growth in excess of 34% like for like, while the larger amusement area has seen like for like growth of just under 50%, and this center will pay back its investment in less than one year. We've identified a further 11 sites which will benefit from the combined bar and diner and larger amusement areas, which we'll get to in the balance of this year and also into next year. I've said the pipeline on slide 24 continues to be strong.
We've got a signed pipeline, as you can see on the slide, and there are 4 more centers close to signing, 2 of which we'd expect to open in the next 12-15 months. We're also ahead of the terms and legals on a number of other sites, confident we'll hit the guided 14-18 before the end of FY 2024, and also we're now filling up FY 2025. It's important to note that lots of opportunities continue to come our way. The strong covenant and financial performance really helps, as well as landlords reassessing their tenant mix.
However, we will continue to stay focused on only going for those quality opportunities, and the best locations for our portfolio, as you can see from the most recent nine openings on the next slide. Now what this slide shows is the gross and net CapEx for the past nine new center openings. Now they're in no particular order, so don't try and work them out, but you can try. But as you can see, quality is the key to our new center openings, with a return on the net capital investment of over 45% for these openings. That's GBP 8.2 million of net CapEx invested and GBP 3.7 million EBITDA generated in their first 12 months, and they continue to grow their EBITDA post their first 12 months.
Our new center openings in FY 2022 have started well and are on track to deliver on their internal ROI targets. Thanks. Looking at Puttstars briefly. Since the creation of the concept and the opening of the first center in 2020, it was brilliant to open the fourth Puttstars in Harrow during February. With the fifth site due to be completed during the second half of this year, we'll have a really robust group of centers to continue testing and evolving the concept. All of the centers opened so far are trading in line with expectation. They're profitable and expected to contribute circa GBP 1.2 million of EBITDA for FY 2022 on a pre-IFRS 16 basis.
Now, the new brand is slowly gaining recognition in the markets that we operate in, and we are actually in the middle of a really large customer feedback project. Now we've been open for 12 months, we're able to really kick the tires on the customer to find out what they value and what they don't and what barriers we're putting in their way to stop them coming back a little bit sooner than they might. A bit like we did with the Hollywood Bowl business and brand when we started it. We've laid out here comparisons on spend per game versus bowl for context, although it is worth noting that bowling utilization will always be much better than we could ever hope to achieve in the golf centers, just due to the very nature of the product.
Their capacity, for example, with 27 holes of golf is similar to a 12-lane bowling center. The smallest bowling center that we operate is a 14-lane center in Watford. Looking at international expansion on slide 28. International expansion's always been part of our growth strategy for a number of years. Over the last 3 years, we've conducted a very thorough and extensive global search for suitable markets and targets. The work was hampered somewhat by the pandemic, but after a really successful reopening in the U.K., we have the bandwidth to resume the negotiations that we'd started actually back in early 2019 with the owners of Splitsville and Striker in Canada. The Canadian bowling market is really well established.
It's resilient and a valued activity for a customer group that very closely mirrors the U.K. Canada's a stable market with a liberal government and a well-educated population that have got a relatively high level of disposable income. Over 38 million people live in the country. 81% of the population is urban, and 90% of the entire population live within 100 miles of the U.S. border. The bowling market in Canada is hugely fragmented and underinvested. There are 193 bowling centers in Canada, but there are only four operators that have got any scale, with the single largest operator having just 17 venues. All of them are privately owned businesses, other than two centers that are operated by the newly listed U.K. company, Bowlero. We've acquired Teaquinn Holdings Inc, that consists of Splitsville and Striker businesses.
Splitsville is a group of 5 ten-pin bowling centers, 2 of which are freehold, with a freehold value of circa 9 million CAD. Striker is a small bowling equipment maintenance and new center fit out company. Now that's interesting in that it serves the whole of the Canadian market. It's also got exclusive rights to the supply of the Canadian Brunswick bowling products and brings with it a really unique and detailed insight into every bowling operator in Canada. Splitsville hit all of the markets that we'd set when looking for international growth. It's in a market for us to move into that we believe will welcome our customer-led operating model with obviously some local modification. It's using technology the way that we do. We know we can improve it through our digital marketing, CRM, and generally professionalizing the systems.
They're all areas that we can add value to from afar. There's low downside risk to this acquisition. The business is profitable and freehold backed with really good medium to long-term growth potential. There's a well-established, experienced and motivated management team at the helm who are incentivized to scale the business over the next three to five years and have identified single site acquisitions and new center developments. The business will need some funding to top up the cash it already generates to deliver its plan, but not to the extent that it'll impact on any of the U.K. CapEx plans, new opening plans, or our ability to pay dividends. Pat Haggerty, the President and owner of the business, is staying for a minimum period of three years to lead the growth of the company.
Pat's a really experienced CEO, and he's personally and financially incentivized to grow the business, requiring only strategic input from the U.K. based team. The business has been bought on a cash-free and debt-free basis, and the purchase represents a 5.7x multiple of their FY 2019 EBITDA. It was made from cash on our balance sheet with a payment schedule designed to retain the management team and incentivize them to grow the company. The team have got a really healthy pipeline of new centers, with one center added during FY 2021 and one additional site in heads of terms stage and a target of two new centers a year over the next five years. In summary, we are confident about the medium- to long-term potential for the group. Hollywood Bowl is the market leader with a high-quality, all-profitable estate.
We continue to see strong demand for our offering and have a great value for money, low ticket price with unique experience. With our universal appeal, we're not reliant on any one market. We've a well-defined and proven strategy for growth that we're continually refining and we've seen a fantastic start to the year. Whilst we expect to see the like for like performance soften as we start trading against the post COVID bounce months, we still expect double-digit growth for the year. Finally, we're excited about the acquisition of Splitsville and Striker and the new long-term growth opportunities that this presents to the group.