Bumper Christmas fuels M&B growth
Strong food sales and a bumper Christmas helped Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) increase like-for-like sales 3.1% on last year for the 17 weeks to 22 January.
Total sales for the retained estate during that period were up 3.9% with food sales up 6.1% and drink up 0.9%.
Like-for-like sales over the key 12-day Christmas period (23 December to 3 January) were up 6.7%.
The most recent nine weeks saw like-for-like sales up 2.5% on last year, including a "marginal adverse impact" from the weather.
Expansion plans
M&B said its first two Harvester sites on retail parks had delivered "encouraging" results. It remains on track to open 50 new sites across all its brands in the year in addition to 70 conversions.
It is planning to appoint additional non-executive directors to the board, most likely in response to accusations that six non-execs are not independent because they were nominated by Piedmont — the investment vehicle of Joe Lewis, which owns 22.5% of M&B.
Outlook
M&B said it remained cautious on possible future trends in customer discretionary income and input cost increases in the year ahead".
Chief executive Adam Fowle said: "This is a very good start to the year with like-for-like food sales up 6% helped by a strong Christmas performance.
"These trading results, together with the encouraging performance from the two new Harvester retail park sites and the improving new openings pipeline, show that we are on track to implement our growth strategy and indicate the future potential within the business."
Earlier this week, M&B announced that chairman John Lovering would step down when a successor was found. He has been in the role just 12 months.
