Young's reports 22% uplift in half-year profit
London pub retailer and brewer has reported a “good performance” in the first 26 weeks of its financial year to 26 September.
Its managed division saw like-for-likes down 0.7% but operating profit up 0.7% despite large increases in electricity and rates — overall revenue was up 1.7%.
The company’s half-share in Wells and Young’s saw revenue up 1% and contributed £1.8m to Young’s adjusted profit before tax.
Young’s tenanted estate, representing 10.9% of total revenue, saw overall operating profit down 4.6% at £2.8m. Overall profit before tax was up 22% to £12,342,000.
There was an overall £5m investment across the exising estate “to maintain premium positioon”.
Chief executive Stephen Goodyear said: “Young’s has turned in a good performance in a period that has seen many challenges for the pub industry.
“Our strategy is focused on maintaining the premium position of our estate to maximise long term profitability. We have therefore resisted the temptation to chase sales through heavy discounting and this approach has served us well.
“We continue to invest in our managed and tenanted pubs, and in our hotel offering. Despite this we have achieved a small reduction in debt and have one of the strongest balance sheets amongst the quoted pub companies.
"We are therefore well positioned to expand our estate through acquisition as the right value enhancing opportunities become available.
“Given the current market conditions trading since the end of September has been encouraging and we believe that we are well placed to build on a positive first half performance.”
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