1st Feb 2008 07:00
Greene King PLC01 February 2008 PRESS RELEASE 1 February 2008 GREENE KING plc INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT Greene King announces its Interim Management Statement for the 38 weeks toJanuary 20th, 2008. As we predicted at our interim results in December, the recent tradingenvironment has become more challenging for the pub and beer industry. TheChristmas and New Year period showed improved trading over previous weeks, butwhilst peak days showed growth year on year, trading on other days was moresubdued. In Greene King Retail, managed pub LFL sales are in line with last year at-0.1%, whilst Loch Fyne, which was acquired in August, had a strong Christmasand New Year period and LFL sales since acquisition are +2.3%. Greene King has always taken a long-term approach to its tenants and lessees andremains focused on their viability and profitability. Despite the tough tradingenvironment, Pub Partners, our tenanted and leased business in England andWales, has grown LFL profit +0.2%. Integration of New Century Inns has beencompleted and we are very pleased with its progress. Greene King's beer brands continue to deliver sector-leading performance in avery difficult UK beer market; Brewing Company's own-brewed volumes have grown+6.5%. In year two of the smoking ban in Scotland, Belhaven continues to performstrongly; Belhaven Best volumes are +5.6% and managed pub LFL sales are abovelast year. Group margins remain ahead of last year despite the well-documented costpressures being faced by the industry as a whole. Since the beginning of the financial year, Greene King has bought back 15.4mshares for a total value of £149.5m, at an average price of 973p per share. Ourcashflow performance and balance sheet position are healthy and in line withforecasts. We expect the rest of the year to remain challenging. Nevertheless, the inherentstrengths of our business, the resilience of our business model and theencouraging contributions from recent acquisitions give us confidence that ourearnings expectations for the year to May 4th will be met. For further information: Greene King plc Rooney Anand, Chief Executive Tel: 01284 763222 Ian Bull, Group Finance Director Financial Dynamics Ben Foster Tel: 0207 831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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