12th Nov 2015 09:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Young & Co's Brewery PLC on Thursday reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year, driven by a strong performance from its managed estate which it said has continued into the second half.
The pub operator said pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended September 18 rose 3.7% to GBP19.5 million from GBP18.8 million in the same period the year before, as revenue grew 8.3% to GBP126.3 million from GBP116.6 million.
Young's said results were boosted from particularly strong growth in its managed estate, which achieved like-for-like growth of 5.5%, its fourth consecutive year of interim growth above 5%.
The Ram Pub Co, its tenanted division, was hit by tough comparatives, although it still managed to maintain last year's sales and profit at growth of 14% and 21%, respectively.
Young's added that trading has been "promising" since the period end, with managed house total sales up 13% in the first six weeks of the second half and 9.6% on a like-for-like basis.
Young's will pay an interim dividend of 8.38 pence, a 6.1% increase on the 7.90p paid the prior year.
"The second half will benefit from a full contribution from five recent acquisitions including most recently the Canonbury in Islington and the Grocer in Spitalfields Market, two scheduled new openings and the re-opening of a number of our London pubs currently under development," Chief Executive Stephen Goodyear said in a statement.
"Momentum has continued into the autumn. Many of our pubs, in south west London in particular, have a deep rooted rugby heritage and have thrown themselves into the World Cup. Despite England's early demise, they have generated good business from both local and visiting rugby fans alike," he added.
Shares in Young's were trading up 2.1% at 1,260.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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