Restructuring at Hydes drives up profits

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Manchester's family-controlled Hydes' Brewery is continuing to restructure the business after driving up profits.It has been selling under-performing...

Manchester's family-controlled Hydes' Brewery is continuing to restructure the business after driving up profits.

It has been selling under-performing outlets while focusing on traditional pubs and buying about five new sites a year.

The vertically integrated business is also set to be split into two divisions, pub retailing and brewing.

Chief executive Chris Hopkins (pictured)​ said: "We have made sure the two parts of the business are independently viable and successful and contributing to the bottom line.

"We don't want the retail side to be carrying the production side. We now have two businesses heading in the right direction."

In its results for the year to April 1, turnover rose by 17.6 per cent to £16.6m and pre-tax profit before exceptionals by 17.2 per cent to £2.25m. It marked a fourth year of double-digit growth in operating profits.

This has been particularly boosted by freetrade sales which have risen over the past three years from less than 2,000 barrels to up to 20,000.

Its brands, such as its ale Jekyll's Gold, are also in growth after completion of a project to increase capacity at the Moss Side brewery from 45,000 barrels to 60,000.

The Hydes estate is now made up of 34 managed houses with 32 tenancies. Last year, it bought five new managed houses and it expects to continue expanding at that rate, supported by debt funding of £10m from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The most recent acquisitions took it to Nantwich in Cheshire, Leek in Staffordshire and Prescot, near Liverpool.

Last month, Hydes unveiled its modern slant on the community local at the Coach and Four, formerly the New Inn, in Wilmslow, which offers stylish dÈcor and an upmarket menu.

With planning permission for a hotel with 33 rooms next to the pub, the brewer also intends to begin investing in accommodation.

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