Profit surge at Young's
London brewer and operator Young's has unveiled a 72.1% uplift in profit for the 26 weeks to 29 September 2007.
Across its 112-strong managed estate, sales rose 13.6% fuelled by a 23.9% growth in food sales, which the company said had helped off-set the effects of the smoking ban.
Food now accounts for 24.5% of sales in its managed pubs.
Like-for-like sales growth in the managed estate was 5.7% or 1.9% on an uninvested basis.
Young's bought one pub for £3.5m and invested £4.9m on existing pubs. It completed the sale of its Buckford Road site for £10.3m and is due to complete the sale of its Wandsworth brewery on 4 January 2008 for £58.7m.
"I am very pleased with our strong first half performance, which reflects the benefits from the substantial changes made to the company last year and has been achieved despite the twin challenges of the disappointing summer weather and the smoking ban," said Young's chief executive Stephen Goodyear.
"Trading in our pubs in the first six weeks of the second half to date has been resilient, with managed house sales up 8.7% and up 8.3% on a same outlet like for like basis (up 1.4% on an uninvested basis).
"There are clearly some continuing uncertainties facing the market generally, in particular how the smoking ban might affect trade over the colder winter months, although given the summer we had this contrast may be less obvious.
"It has also still to be seen whether the summer's economic problems result in a dip in consumer confidence, which in turn could affect leisure spending."
