Bass pubs hit by wet winter and refurb costs

Bass is pushing up profits and sales in its pubs despite complaining that the business was hit by refurbishment costs and "one of the wettest winters in recent years".

Within its 2,074-strong estate, average weekly takings were up by 3.3 per cent to £13,100 per pub in the six months to April 14 and, in its branded outlets, the average was £17,000.

Excluding nearly 1,000 pubs sold to Nomura, Bass Leisure Retail's sales were up by 2.5 per cent to £729m, with food sales growing by 6.4 per cent to £199m.

But chief executive Tim Clarke said: "This first half included the wettest winter of recent times and this affected sales."

Like-for-like sales in its more mature pubs where no money had been spent were down by 1.6 per cent.

Mr Clarke added that it suffered from losing 2,100 weeks' worth of sales - worth about £9m - from 129 outlets being closed while converting them into brands such as Vintage Inns, Harvester, Toby Carvery, It's A Scream, Ember Inns and Goose.

But these pubs, which were mostly some of the Allied Domecq pubs that it bought from Punch, went on to boost sales by over 50 per cent on average after re-opening.

With 178 of the 550 former Allied sites now rebranded, Bass is on course to convert another 130 by mid-October.

About 44 per cent of Bass' pubs are now branded compared to only a quarter a year ago. Investment in branded outlets continues to earn average returns of 17 per cent.

The group, which is developing a global hotel empire, reported overall a 20 per cent increase in turnover to £2,093m and a four per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £337m for the six months.

But it did not indicate if it was any nearer to deciding whether to split up its hotel and pubs businesses into two separate companies.

It has also not revealed what name the company will have once it loses the rights to the Bass trademark, which it sold along with its breweries to Interbrew last year.

With the loss of the 988 pubs, which now form Voyager Pub Group, overall turnover for Bass Leisure Retail was down by 0.4 per cent to £890m over the six months while operating profit was down four per cent to £166m.

Within the pubs division of Bass Leisure Retail, operating profit was up by 3.2 per cent, while the restaurants were flat at £39m.

Bass also revealed that sales volumes were "marginally" ahead of last year within the soft drinks business, Britvic, that it owns jointly with Whitbread and Allied Domecq.

This was boosted by last year's acquisition of Orchid Soft Drinks and a particularly strong performance by the Robinsons brand. Turnover was up by 3.3 per cent to £279m and operating profit by 22 per cent to £11m.