A growing enthusiasm for five-a-side football has helped raise first-half profits by 47% to £3.1m at Goals Soccer Centres, the company said.
The company, which caters for 80,000 footballers a week at 23 sites around the UK, believes it is improving the nation's health as well as investors' wealth. "This really is a win-win situation at a time when we are all concerned about rising obesity rates. Small sides football has overtaken 11-a-side because it appeals to a wider age group and range of abilities, from six years upwards, both girls and boys," said Keith Rogers, managing director of Goals.
Sales rose 31% to £9.7m as Goals opened two new sites this year with plans to add a further three before January, and five more in 2008.
Many of the £2m facilities are being built for local education authorities in school grounds, with headteachers able to charge the company rent but use the pitches for free during the day. Goals will often build additional facilities under local partnership agreements.
Derek Needham, deputy head of Hanson school in Bradford, says the Goals facilities at his school had been a "terrific" boost to the surrounding community as well as his students.
"We had nothing of this sort in this area before and now we not only have the football pitches but a dance studio and a pavilion, which is booked solid for the next eight months on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights," he added.
Cynics suggest that Goals finds it easier to win planning permission inside facility-deprived schools but Mr Rogers said many of its deals were undertaken with the private sector but some of these pitches could be empty by day while being very busy in the evenings.
Goals has not only been gaining from its expansion but also from being able to raise its prices over the last six months. It now charges up to £50 an hour for a pitch, although it says more than 12,000 children play for free every year.
The company was listed on the junior stock market, Aim, at 62p but has soared since and closed last night at 389.5p, down 0.5p. Analysts at KBC Peel Hunt have said the opportunities for growth at Goals are "enormous".