Food the star performer for M&B

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) is on the hunt for acquisitions as is seeks to extend its market-leading position in the pub food market.

Announcing its interim results, M&B said food sales were up 5.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis in the 32 weeks to May 10, compared to a 1.5 per cent decline in like-for-like drinks sales.

The UK's biggest managed pub operator, operating brands including Harvester, Vintage Inns, Toby Carvery and Ember Inns, said it was making significant market share gains.

Highlights included:

• A sustained improvement at Vintage Inns, where M&B has kept prices competitive since the launch of new menus last autumn
• The carvery offers, Toby Carvery and Pub & Carvery, have seen "excellent growth"
• In the residential pub sector, which includes Ember Inns, new customers attracted to smoke free pubs have helped to push food sales by 15 per cent.

M&B has now converted 204 pub restaurants acquired from Whitbread in 2006 to its own brands and formats, with average weekly sales uplifts on the converted sites running at around 19 per cent above the levels when the pubs were acquired.

Buoyed by this success with acquisitions, M&B said it will continue to "actively explore opportunities for managed pub sector consolidation."

Last month, Punch Taverns firmly rejected an approach by M&B for the Spirit managed business, in the wake of the breakdown of merger talks between the two groups. However M&B remains interested in adding Spirit, which includes the Chef & Brewer brand, to its existing operation.