Punch hosts' yearly earnings reach £35k
Punch Taverns has produced its first ever official figure for tenants' and lessees' earnings in the estate - £35,000 including the annual live-in benefit of £8,000.
The figure derives from more than 2,700 business assessments this year and has increased by the rate of inflation in the past year, according to chief executive Giles Thorley.
He claimed the figure may be on the conservative side but that it was calculated from a representative sample of the estate.
Punch also revealed that the average assignment figure is now £80,000 and the average rent increase on review at 558 pubs was 8% - a total of 375 new rents have been agreed on lease renewal at an average uplift of 19%.
We've increased the overall quality of the estatePunch chief executive Giles Thorley.
The company said it received 129 applications from would-be licensees each week.
Meanwhile, Thorley said the acquisition of the Spirit business in January this year had given Punch greater flexibility.
He said: "We've increased the overall quality of the estate and can look at managed and leased options in terms of going forward - and we have options whether we keep them or sell."
Any sale of Spirit "would not take very long", he said, although the division was "not in the departure lounge".
Thorley believes there was still a "reasonable amount of consolidation" to come in the industry.
He added, however: "There is no deal we feel we have to do."
Punch revealed that its experience of the smoking ban at its 493 pubs in Scotland had been benign.
Leased estate turnover fell 1.5% but "rental income and defaults remains low". In its managed estate overall sales are down 0.1% but food sales are up 3.6%. Turnover rose 101% to £1.546m in the 52 weeks to 19 August with profit before tax up 21% to £250m.
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