The pub companies like-for-like (LFL) sales were also up 51.2% compared with the previous year and 19.9% higher than the end of the 2018/2019 financial year.
Oakman Group Executive Chairman Peter Borg-Neal said: “Understanding trading numbers at present is made challenging by the extraordinary Covid related difficulties our sector has faced over the past two and a half years.
“In addition, the changes in the VAT rate further confuse the picture.
“However, whichever way you look at the comparisons, these results represent an excellent performance.
Significantly strengthened
“The comparisons with 2018/19 are skewed by the benefit of the VAT concessions during 2021/22.
“As with the rest of our sector, we were hit hard by Christmas cancellations, and sales remained soft through to the Spring. Recent weeks have been much better.
“These numbers would have been even better but for the continued challenges regarding staffing. Exact calculations are difficult, but we estimate that, as a consequence of having to restrict trading at various times, we have lost around a further 2-3% of growth.”
Ending 4 July 2021, Oakman Group reported net sales of £32.4.m, up £2.5m compared with the 2019/2020 financial year, with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) totalling £3.6m, a loss of £2.6m vs the previous year.
This comes as the operator, which also operates under the Seafood Pub Company brand, increased its property portfolio from 28 to 35 this year, with its three major openings in recent months, the Rose, Wokingham, the Grand Junction Arms, Bulbourne and the Grand Junction, Buckingham, all having outperformed investment targets.
The company’s Balance Sheet position was also significantly strengthened; improving Net Liabilities of £10.8m as of June 2020 to £0.4m of Net Assets as of 4th July 2021, with £14.2m of new equity issued during the year, including £8.3m of shareholder loans.
Defined by uncertainties
Oakman Group CEO Dermot King said: “The year was defined by continued uncertainties caused by Government restrictions on our ability to trade at various times due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I believe we proved our resilience and ingenuity as a management team in the way we coped with an unprecedented set of challenges.
“During the periods across the year when we were allowed to trade, our sales outperformed the market by 36%.
“We improved our customer qualitative scores measured by our ‘Feed It Back’ guest opinion score, strengthened our balance sheet and increased our cash reserves [and] led the campaign to reopen hospitality.
“We continue to look to the future and grow our business despite the complex set of adversities we faced.”
