Turnaround in fortunes for Yates Group
Yates Group, the owner of the Yates' and Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen chains, claims to have turned the corner following its disappointing first half results last year.
Group sales for the year ended March 31, 2002 rose by 3.5 per cent to £161.7m from £156.2m. This was due in part to aggressive drinks discounting, a focus on food sales and cost reductions across the estate.
Mike Hennessy, executive chairman, said: "We have turned around the business and have achieved good margin growth."
Despite this, results revealed a fall in pre-tax profits to £12.1m against £13.8m for the previous year.
Yates also announced the appointment of a new chief executive Mark Jones, currently the managing director of Pizza Hut, and previously managing director of the Hogshead Pub chain when it was owned by Whitbread. He is to join the group in early September.
Like-for-like group sales were up 1.2 per cent from a decline of 1.4 per cent in the first half. Average sales per site increased from £20,000 to £20,200 for the same period last year. Sales for its Ha! Ha! Bar and Canteen brand were up by 49 per cent to £16.3m. Like-for-like sales for the Ha! Ha! chain were up 7.7 per cent.
The group announced that costs had been eliminated through redundancies, selling poor performing outlets and stronger control over capital expenditure. The group is now looking to open more new sites but would not speculate on numbers or timing.
The company currently has 127 Yates and 18 Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteens.
Earnings per share fell to 13.2p from 17.2 p and the dividend was maintained at 4.95 pence.
Related articles:
Yates Group back on track (4 April 2002)
Yates suffers £4m hangover (8 November 2001)
