21st May 2015 08:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - Young & Co's Brewery PLC Thursday reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year, driven by strong sales in its pubs, and said it is confident it will make further progress as it looks to expand its portfolio.
The pub operator reported a 36% rise in pretax profit in the year ended March 30 to GBP36.1 million from GBP26.6 million the prior year, as revenue grew 7.7% to GBP227.0 million from GBP210.8 million.
It said revenue was driven by a 6.5% like-for-like sales rise from its managed houses, representing the fourth year of managed house like-for-like sales growth.
During the year, Young's bought eight pubs, increasing the total number of managed pubs to 166, and said it has a "continued appetite for further acquisitions, alongside our existing estate and extending into southern cities and market towns that suit our premium offering".
Young's will pay a a total dividend of 16.46 pence, up 6.1% from the 15.52p paid the year before.
"Trading in the current year has started promisingly, with managed house revenue in the first seven weeks up 8.1% in total and 5.6% like-for-like. We have a number of new pubs to come on stream this year, and we look forward to this autumn's Rugby World Cup drawing people into Young's pubs in south west London and beyond. Whilst the strength of last year's performance sets the bar ever higher, we are confident that we can make further progress," Chief Executive Stephen Goodyear said in a statement.
Shares in Young & Co were trading down 1.4% at 1,070.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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