Young's: Sale of brewery well timed
Young's has hailed the sale of its Wandsworth brewery as "well-timed" after reporting a 55% jump in adjusted profits on last year.
In its first full-year results since the sale of the brewery - and merging of brewing operations with Charles Wells - Young's reported a 6.6% increase in revenue on last year to £122.1m.
Adjusted profit before tax was up 54.7% to £18.6m
"This is our first full year's trading since the major reorganisation and, given the current market conditions, the sale of the brewery looks well timed," said chief executive Stephen Goodyear.
"The proceeds from the sale have been invested in pub acquisitions and re-developments for the long term benefit of the business and our shareholders."
Revenue at its managed houses was up 8.1% with operating profit up 19.7%. Like-for-like sales on a same outlet basis were up 4.7% fuelled by a 16% growth in food sales.
Food now accounts for over a quarter of sales in its managed pub division.
Smoking ban
However, the smoking ban hit its 103-strong tenanted and leased pubs harder with wet sales down 3.8%.
Revenue was up just under 1% despite like-for-like declines of around 2% on a same outlet univested basis.
"The tenanted and leased division is where the smoking ban, difficult summer and consumer slow down have had the severest impact," said Goodyear.
Young's invested £1.9m in upgrading its tenanted pubs and helping to provide smoking areas.
Trading at Wells & Young's was in line with expectations "despite the challenging trading environment, with higher raw material and utility costs compounded by the poor summer weather".
The company acquired and refurbished nine pubs for £26.6m and invested a further £9.4m on existing sites.
Goodyear added: "Whilst the short term pressures facing the business and the wider UK economy are likely to continue to be challenging, we believe that we are in a strong position to meet them.
"Trading in our pubs in the first eight weeks of the new financial year has been resilient with managed house sales up 3.4% and up 1.6% on a same outlet like-for-like basis."
