18th May 2016 06:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Marston's PLC on Wednesday said it swung to a profit in the first half of its financial year as revenue grew strongly following the openings of new pubs and its acquisition of the Thwaites beer business last year.
The pub operator and brewer, which makes Hobgoblin ale, said it made a pretax profit of GBP22.8 million in the 26 weeks ended April 2, having suffered a pretax loss of GBP27.5 million in the first half of the prior year.
Revenue grew to GBP444.3 million from GBP400.5 million, which Marston's said was thanks to positive contributions from new openings, growth in its beer brands and the acquisition of Thwaites last year.
Marston's will pay an interim dividend of 2.6 pence, which is up 4% on the prior year.
Marston's noted that the second half of the year will face the introduction of the Pubs Code by the UK government. The code is being implemented to regulate the relationship between tied pub tenants and large pub-owning businesses which rent the pubs to them and sell them tied products.
The company said, however, that it is not materially exposed to any potential adverse consequences of this given that its tenanted and leased division generates only 15% of total pub profit.
"After the first few weeks of the second half year, performance remains in line with expectations. Despite more challenging comparatives in the second half year, we remain confident of achieving our targets for the full financial year," Marston's said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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