£1m pre-tax gain for Brunning & Price

Brunning & Price, the only pub company in the UK to to win The Good Pub Guide's Pub Group of the Year award three times, has hit the £1m pre-tax profit figure for the first time, according to results filed at Companies House at the end of last year.

The company, founded by Graham Price and Jeremy Brunning 25 years ago, runs a dozen high quality freeholds with

average turnover over £1m a year each.

In the most recent financial year to 30 June 2006, turnover rose 10.6% to £16m from £14.5m the year before with pre-tax profit of £1m compared to £895,000 the year before.

Brunning said pub profits were under attack from

rising costs - profit from existing pubs was up by just 0.17% despite turnover growing by 3.3%.

He said: "What has allowed us to report a reasonably sound year is the extra contribution from two new pubs. Out of our control are rates, power and wages. Our rates have increased by an average of 45% while the cost of power has doubled and then there is the ripple effect of the minimum wage.

"These overheads on their own would give us a headache but we've been adding some of our own upgrading suppliers.

"All our chicken and eggs are now free range, all our beef and lamb is British while a great deal of our pork is organic.

"In other words we are making a concerted effort to give people the best and I just hope we have made the right decision.

"Fortunately, we don't have any external shareholders so we can indulge our ideas and do what we think is right."

Brunning & Price converted five pubs to non-smoking during the year. The company's estate includes the Corn Mill in Llangollen, Wales, and the Black Jug in Horsham.