Greene King reports 'strong' performance

Greene King has reported a "strong performance" with a 2.8% rise in profit before tax to £62.4m for the 24 weeks to 18 October. 

Revenue was £464.5m, 4.3% ahead of the same period last year, operating profit was £103.3m, down 3.3% on last year. 

Like-for-likes in the managed division were up 4.6%, with food growth of 9.2%. The tenanted division saw average EBITDA per pub down 6.4%. 

The company's turn-around division, Independence Pub Company, saw a reduction in number from 404 pubs to 310 inside 12 months — one-third of these will be returned to the "core" tenanted estate by the financial year-end.    

Chief executive Rooney Anand said: '"Having detected the warning signs in the autumn of 2007, we acted quickly and decisively to adapt our offer to consumers to reflect their flight to value, to increase our focus and investment in strategically important growth categories such as food, wine and coffee and to invest additional support for our licensees both in our managed and tenanted businesses.

"At the same time, a thorough examination of our cost base and a meticulous approach to reducing and then controlling our costs has offset above-inflationary cost pressures and allowed us to deliver the value being demanded by our customers.

"More recently, we completed a successful rights issue to enable us to make targeted pub acquisitions and buy back debt at a discount to par. 

He added: "These actions have helped to deliver the strong performance achieved in the first half of the year.

"Our Retail business has delivered strong like-for-like sales growth, whilst maintaining its industry-leading operating margins.

"I believe there are still a number of growth opportunities within Retail that we are yet to exploit fully and I therefore remain confident it can continue to perform strongly.

"Pub Partners has completed the first year of a two-year turnaround programme and we have begun to see some improvements in its key performance indicators including licensee health.

"Belhaven is on course to deliver another record year, although growth is likely to slow in the second half due to tougher comparatives.

"Finally, our beer brands in Brewing Company have once again outperformed the market and cemented their position as category leaders in the UK."