Profits increase at Hall & Woodhouse

Dorset brewer Hall & Woodhouse has increased profit before tax "despite difficult trading conditions".

The company boosted turnover from £86.2m to £88m in the year to 22 January 2008, with profit before tax and property profits rising from £8.8m to £9m.

The company achieved property disposal profits of £1.2m compared to £1.6m the year before, with the sale of its free trade business at the end of the year. Hall & Woodhouse's capital expenditure for the year was £15.1m, the majority of which was spent refurbishing its pub estate.

Managing director Mark Woodhouse said: "As pub profitability comes under pressure, the ability to rationalise the bottom-end of the estate by closing unviable pubs and seeking permission for alternative use is often held up by a slow-moving and bureaucratic planning system. It is surely better to have fewer pubs which have been well invested in, rather than trying to support too many. Unfortunately, planners often try to retain pubs without any regard for their viability."

On the sale of the free trade business, he added: "The exit from the unprofitable free trade business allows us to focus our efforts on our premium bottled ales and brewing for our tied estate."

Hall & Woodhouse was granted planning consent for the redevelopment of its 17.5-acre brewery site in Blandford in November 2007, subject to completing a Section 106 agreement. The scheme is mixed use including residential, commercial and a new brewery. Hall & Woodhouse said 2008 was producing a "perfect storm" of market conditions from which the company "is not immune".

"However, with the changes made, the company is well placed to weather the storm," the company added.