13th Mar 2015 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - JD Wetherspoon PLC Friday reported strong sales growth in the first half of its financial year but a lower operating margin owing to higher rates of pay for pub staff and higher utility costs.
The pub chain said revenue was up 9.0% at GBP744.4 million in the 26 weeks to 25 January from GBP683.2 million a year earlier. Like-for-like sales were up 4.5%. However, operating margin narrowed to 7.4% from 8.2%.
Pretax profit rose 4.1% to GBP37.5 million in the half year from GBP36.0 million in the same period the year before. Wetherspoon left its interim dividend flat at 4.0 pence per share.
"The first half of the financial year resulted in reasonable sales performance and free cash flow, although our profit was under pressure from areas which included increased competition from supermarkets and increased pay bonuses for pub staff," Chairman Tim Martin said in a statement.
During the period, 12 new pubs were opened while three were closed, bringing the total number of pubs open at the period's end to 936.
"The second half of the last financial year was strong, which will make it difficult to improve on that performance in the current year, although we expect a reasonable outcome for the full financial year, even so," Martin said.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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