City news
Greene King reports positive results across estate
Like-for-like sales grew 5% in the Christmas fortnight in Greene King and 5.2% in Spirit.
The integrated tenanted and leased estate saw like-for-like net income up 2.5%, while Brewing & Brands own-brewed volume (OBV) grew 3.9%
The company said the Spirit integration was progressing well, with encouraging performance in rebranded trial sites.
Greene King said combined retail sales after 40 weeks were up 67% benefitting from a 33 week contribution from Spirit and 6% growth at Greene King.
In Greene King’s estate like-for-like growth was driven by Locals Pubs and hotels, with growth in food, drink and rooms. Continued strength in Chef & Brewer drove Spirit’s growth, the company said.
Ten news sites were opened across the retail estate during the period.
Record sales of £6.8m were achieved on Christmas Day in the combined Retail estate which was led by food and included a record pub trading day of £19k at the Farmhouse Inn in Ashton-under-Lyme. Over the Christmas and New Year weeks, Prosecco volumes were up 69% while Premium Gin grew 77%, and at New Year a record 4,447 drinks per minute were sold in the last hour of 2015.
The company said individual tenanted and leased pubs had a successful Christmas with five sites from the turnover agreement estate achieving sales of over £40k in the Christmas week.
Greene King said its disposal programme was on track, with 33 Pub Partners disposals so far this year.
In Brewing & Brands growth was driven by Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen. The company said Greene King IPA had been helped by its popularity surge in China and the distribution from within the Spirit managed estate.
On the outlook for the year, the company said: “Overall, our expectations for the full year are unchanged. Despite the current global economic uncertainty, we remain confident that we will deliver further value to our guests and shareholders by continuing to develop and enhance the existing Greene King business while successfully integrating Spirit.”
Rooney Anand, chief executive, said: “This was another strong performance, with all divisions trading well during the important festive period, and record trading on Christmas Day. The latest Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker shows that, despite varying their choices when eating out, pubs were a major destination for customers. Our positive trading results are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams who gave our guests great experiences, with value, service and quality central to our offer.
”I am pleased to report continued progress with the Spirit integration, including encouraging signs from our rebranded trial sites thus far, and continued progress in terms of synergy delivery. Our focus remains on the development and continuous enhancement of our core Greene King business while successfully integrating Spirit, to create the UK’s leading pub company.”
