Yates Group on the slow road to recovery

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.