24th May 2018 13:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - Pub operator Young & Co's Brewery PLC hiked its dividend Thursday after its annual profit and revenue rose, despite a "challenging" market and the new year has started well.
For the year ended April 2, pretax profit widened 1.6% to GBP37.6 million from GBP37.0 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 3.9% to GBP279.3 million from GBP268.9 million the year before.
Managed-house revenue rose 6.9% to GBP266.4 million, with like-for-like sales up 4.2% which Young's described as "industry-leading" growth. The tenanted pubs of Ram Pub Co, however, grew like-for-like revenue at a more modest 1.6%.
"I am delighted with this strong set of results, delivered against a challenging market backdrop, as they demonstrate the benefit of our strategy of running a differentiated, premium and well-invested pub estate in superb locations and with a highly customer-centric approach," Young's Chief Executive Officer Patrick Dardis said.
"We have continued to invest in our future growth through a combination of exciting acquisitions and investment in our existing estate while also upgrading our technology to enhance the customer experience and realise productivity gains," Dardis added.
During the year, Young's invested a further GBP53.0 million through estate upgrades and acquisitions.
Young's proposed a 10.20 pence per share final dividend, up 6.0% from 9.62p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 6.0% to 19.61p from 18.50p the year before.
"We've started the year well and, despite being up against very strong comparatives in the previous year, managed houses revenue in the first seven weeks was up 11.0% in total and up 7.5% on a like- for-like basis," Dardis explained.
"Although uncertainty prevails in both the political and economic environment, we are confident that our strategy will continue to deliver superior shareholder returns," Dardis continued. "I am a firm believer that the traditional British pub will never go out of fashion and, as a result, I'm both excited and optimistic about the year ahead."
Shares in Young's were 0.1% lower at 1,654.00 pence on Thursday.
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