Spirit Pub Company to undertake new franchise trial

Spirit converted eight leased sites to franchise in the 20 weeks to 5 January; five were converted to community pub brand John Barras.

Tye said: “You will spot absolutely no difference between the franchise John Barras and managed John Barras. They are run exactly the same — that’s the secret of its success. The sales performance is very encouraging so far.”

Tye revealed that the remaining three other franchised sites were not branded John Barras, but “in most elements apart from the brand they are very, very similar”. This was done “to see if we would get more traction from unbranded”.

“We are going to do another, probably eight more, in the very near future, and again we will probably do different formats in those.”

Tye said Chef & Brewer and Taylor Walker would be “entirely possible” for conversions. “I’m not ruling anything out yet,” he stressed.

Spirit reported a 5% rise in like-for-like sales in the three weeks to 5 January. Tye said Spirit had record sales on Friday 21 December. Christmas Day sales were up 7%.

Across the 20 weeks to 5 January, managed like-for-likes grew 2.3%. The firm reported a 2.1% decline in like-for-like net turnover and a 2.9% fall in like-for-like net income in its leased arm, but said it was seeing improving trends in the division.

There were eight disposals in the leased arm, with prices realised in line with book value.