Punch pubs see profits up

Punch Taverns has announced "excellent" results with pre-tax profit up 13%.

The pubco, which bought Spirit Group in December, said its group turnover had rocketed from £404million in 2005 to £619million in the 28 weeks to March this year - an increase of 53%.

Punch said at 4 March it had 7,748 leasehold pubs and 1,808 managed houses.

It said it would continue to transfer pubs from managed to leased following a review of the Spirit estate the disposal of a further 380 managed pubs is now planned.

Giles Thorley, chief executive of Punch said: "This is another excellent result demonstrating the benefit of our acquisition strategy combined with strong operational performance. ​

We are delighted with the acquisition of Spirit which brings a new dimension to the Group and continued growth potential.

After some further disposals and lease conversions Punch will own a very high quality managed house estate to complement our highly successful leased estate.

These extremely valuable trading divisions are well funded, have very solid infrastructure, and provide an excellent platform to further grow the value of the business."

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Your Comments​Graham Allman​ via email 22/05/2006Well it looks like the trade is going full circle. Punch now have leaseholds and managed houses, how long before someone has the idea of brewing their own beer?

Seems the Regional brewers may have got it right all the time. Bet the likes of Whitbread are looking back at history with wonder!

Robert Feal-Martinez​ via email 23/05/2006"And guess who provided those massive profits. Answers on a post card please."