Amber Taverns reports 3% like-for-like sales

Founded six years ago and acquired by LGV Capital in a management buyout in October 2010, the 77-strong group reported a 37% increase in revenue for the year, with pre-tax profit standing at £3.2m against a loss of £400k in the previous 12 months.
Company EBITDA climbed 55% to £5.1m, while unit EBITDA increased 37% over the period to £6.4m.
A revaluation of the business during the year, led to an uplift of £11.3m to £45m. It invested £7m on capex during the 12 months.
The group, which is led by chairman Clive Preston and managing director James Baer, plans to acquire a further 12-14 pubs this year as it grow towards a target of 100 pubs by 2014. Primarily located in the North of England spanning Wolverhampton to Newcastle on Tyne, the company is now beginning to expand its portfolio into the Midlands.
The company, which secured £5m of additional funding from Lloyds Bank and LGV Capital last year, reported resilient trading across its core estate, where positive like-for-like sales “were not at the expense of operating margin”.
Amber said that the 14 new pubs all traded well following extensive refurbishment and that every unit within its portfolio was profitable.
The group said that trading in the current year had begun well, with like-for-like sales up 2.2% over the last nine weeks, and that it now had a “scalable platform from which to leverage”.
It said that recent acquisitions were performing well with most delivering “industry-leading returns”.
Preston said: “I am delighted to report on an excellent year for Amber. We have continued to demonstrate that wet-led community pubs can be great businesses, great assets for their local communities and a much needed engine for growth in the wider economy through the work and jobs created by our investment in previously unloved and under-managed pubs.
“We attribute our success to providing a first class environment, a consistent value for money proposition and well incentivised operators who run our pubs on Amber’s innovative Operator Agreement.
“The new financial year has started well with positive like for like sales, a strong pipeline of acquisitions identified and the positive impact of events such as Euro 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to come. The directors remain confident for the year ahead.”