The Yates Group, once the darling of the high street, is on the slow road to recovery under the leadership of Mike Hennessy.
The managed house operator unveiled half-year results last week showing a 7.7 per cent rise in profits to £5m. But like-for-likes were down 1.7 per cent.
This was on sales, down two per cent, to £77m. The drop in turnover came after the sale of under-performing pubs.
"We are now very well placed," said executive chairman Mike Hennessy. "The only surprise is the current state of the market.
"We had a very strong first quarter and the World Cup was okay, but since then I think the whole market has dropped off.
"I think the high street is very much in the disposable income bracket and that's why it [trading] is very soft."
The Yates boss said the company was seeing good sales uplift from refurbished sites. He said the company would therefore accelerate its re-development programme.
The entire project, which incorporates 127 sites, will be completed in 15 months instead of the original time-frame of three years.