Enterprise Inns: licensees welcome our new code

The vast majority of Enterprise Inns licensees have given the pubco's new code of practice a warm welcome, the Solihull-based group claimed today.

As it gave an update on recent trading - in which it said the bad weather contributed to an estimated £2m hit to operating profits - Enterprise said its new code formalised "the wide range of agreement types available to licensees, in particular offering greater freedom from the tie where appropriate".

The pubco argued it also laid bare the level of disclosure and requirements for training to be completed before anyone could take up one of its pub.

Enterprise ran more than 1,400 training days for nearly 700 licensees in its first quarter, it added.

"Whilst stricter pre-entry requirements have led to some delays in signing new substantive agreements, we remain focused on achieving our objective of more than 90 per cent of the estate operating on substantive agreements during this financial year."

On the trading front, Enterprise said the normally busy Christmas period was hampered by bad weather. However it was "a tribute to the resilience of our licensees and the determination of their customers that we estimate the impact of these extreme conditions on our first quarter operating profit to be no more than £2m", it said.

Average net income per pub fell one per cent in the 16 weeks to January 16, 2011, while across the substantive estate - 90 per cent of its pubs - like-for-like income per pub fell two per cent, "in line with that reported for the last financial year".

However the group said it expected this situation to improve during the year.

Enterprise said it had raised £32m from selling 105 pubs at a £4m profit over book value. It planned to sell up to 500 pubs in the current financial year.

A further 60 sites would be sold via its sale and leaseback programme on top of the 52 pubs whose freehold interests had already been sold for £73m, a profit of £15m over the book value, it said.

Enterprise said it planned to publish its first half results on May 17, 2011.