Maclay Group focuses on more acquisitions

Maclay Group, the Scottish pub and bar operator, is homing in on three more acquisitions as it looks to have a rolling programme of five or more each year, managing director Steve Mallon has told M&C Report.

The company reported a full-year pre-tax loss of £737,379 against a pre-tax profit of £75,891 in the previous year, after downgrading the value of its 27-strong estate by £0.7m to £14.2m “in line with market conditions”.

Sales fell 0.1% to £10.4m in the 12 months to 29 September 2012 and operating profits declined 3.7% to £718,302, which includes one-off costs relating to the introduction of additional equity during the year.

Mallon said: “It felt like a bit of a repeat of the previous year, which was a case of running hard to stand still.”

However, average profit per Maclay-owned pub grew 3.1% and the gross profit percentage increased from 17.7% to 18%.

Mallon expects 2013 to be “significantly better” due to the improvements and other factors such as lower interest payments due to historic hedging costs coming to an end.