World Cup drives record quarter for Stonegate

19-Sep-2018 - Last updated on 19-Sep-2018 at 08:55 GMT

Record quarter: beer sales increased by 550% across Stonegate Pub Company's estate during England matches

In a third quarter (Q3) trading update Stonegate Pub Company revealed a like-for-like sales increase of 6.1%.

Aided by the summer heatwave and the fact that 18 days of the 2018 Russia World Cup fell within the period, Stonegate recorded what its chief executive described as a “record quarter”.

Total revenue for the period was up by 8.4% to £579.4m with adjusted EBITDA up by 9.1% to £84.6m.

World Cup numbers

Like-for-like sales across the 2018 World Cup (14 June to 15 July) increased by 19.2% according to Stonegate’s report, with the tournament delivering a total of £11.9m incremental revenue. This represented an uplift of £6.1m in sales during the three weeks that fell in Q3.

Moreover, beer sales increased by 550% for England games compared to 44% for World Cup games not featuring Gareth Southgate’s side – with 4.5m pints sold throughout the tournament, peaking during England’s semi-final with Croatia when 367,000 were consumed.

Additionally, Stonegate completed 96 investments across its portfolio in Q3 as well as acquiring four new pubs and disposing of 17 others.

Unrivalled experience

Longbottom said: “This has been a record quarter for Stonegate with another period of continued sales, margin and profit growth, supported by strong trading over the summer and World Cup.

“This excellent performance is all the more pleasing in that it has been achieved while maintaining margin despite continued cost headwinds.

“Our preparation ahead of the World Cup enabled us to maximise the trading opportunity that the tournament presented. We aim to offer our customers the very best sporting experience, creating an atmosphere – which is the next best thing to the real event.

“The Stonegate team rose to the challenge to provide an unrivalled World Cup experience in our pubs and bars up and down the country, generating exceptional sales uplift and further underpinning Stonegate’s leading credentials in sports-led entertainment.”