Sale of S&N Retail costs brewer £51m

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) has revealed it spent £51m on the sale of its Retail managed pub business last year.

The 1,400-strong estate was snapped up by Spirit Group after 35 separate bids and a £2.51bn auction.

The sale was achieved against a book value for the pubs of £2.23m. The S&N estate is widely regarded as the finest large-scale package of managed houses in the UK.

The cost of £51m was revealed as Britain's biggest brewer unveiled results.

Because of a change to S&N's financial year to fall in line with the calendar year, the brewer unveiled eight-month figures from April 2003 to December 2003.

On a pro-forma basis, UK beer sales grew 15.5 per cent to £2.32bn. This included the Bulmer's cider business bought last year.

Operating profit was ahead just 1.2 per cent to £167m following distribution problems in Scottish Courage, the brewer's UK arm.

Underlying beer volumes across the entire S&N business were ahead 2.4 per cent. Fosetr's grew five per cent, Kronenbourg grew four per cent, and Newcastle Brown Ale nine per cent off the back of strong US sales.

Group turnover was £5.512bn on a pro forma basis. Profits were 0.9 per cent ahead at £471m against £467m last year.

The brewer described 2003 as a transformational year. As well as selling S&N Retail, it had established a new executive management group led by Tony Froggatt, the successful integration of recent acquisitions such as Central de Cervejas in Portugal and a sharp recovery in performance in the UK supply chain.