Oakman Inns reports 'strong sales and profit growth' over 2016/17

The directors of Oakman Inns & Restaurants said they were "delighted" with a year of "significant progress across the group".

In addition to its financial performance, the group said it was pleased about "successfully executing" its longer-term strategy.

Two new sites opened, in Solihull, West Midlands, and Royston, Hertfordshire, bringing the total number of developed site at the year end to 16.

The group also purchased the Royal Foresters in Ascot, Berkshire, which was purchased for £3.6m in December 2016 and will re-open after a major refurbishment in the summer of 2018.

Since the year end, Oakman Inns has acquired three more sites. Additionally, the group has four sites currently under construction.

Commenting on the audited figures, Oakman Inns’ CEO and founder, Peter Borg-Neal, said that 2016/17 had been a good year for the group.

"As well as achieving strong sales and profit growth we were able to raise considerable sums and to build an exciting pipeline,” he said.

"Like everybody else we have been negatively impacted by the weakness of sterling and the ever-increasing burden of taxation. However, we have genuine momentum within the business and the current year is also going very well.”

Christmas period​

Oakman Inns also reported "very pleasing" like-for-like growth of 5.9% during the four-week Christmas trading period ending on 31 December 2017.

However, the first week of the period was badly hit by the snow that fell on the Sunday - which also impacted negatively on the first half of the second week, said the group.

The destination sites were particularly badly hit and, accordingly, the business was in 2.5% decline at the half way stage. Although, a strong second half saw a "complete turnaround" to deliver the +5.9% outcome.

“Although the like-for-like sales were slightly down on our year to date run-rate, I am delighted with our performance over Christmas," continued Borg-Neal.

"The snowfall had a negative impact of around £100,000 on our business and, even after allowing for the fact that some customers rebooked for another day, we estimate it knocked around 2.5% to 3% off the like-for-like increase.

"Accordingly, to achieve +5.9%, despite the impact of the weather, is a superb result. Even more so when you consider that we were rolling over strong comparables of +6.7% like-for-like growth in the same period last year.”