Mitchells & Butlers predicts growth in food and big pub brands
On announcing its financial results from Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) said the market is large but fragmented while the importance of brands is on the up and major disparities by region and economic groupings are emerging.
Leisure spending has been protected with average family spending on leisure increasing by 4% from 2007 to 2011. Overall family spending was down 6% over the same period, according to an ONS survey in 2012.
M&B expects the eating‐out market to grow at least in line with overall consumer spending in future with brands with customer focus outperforming. The branded restaurant and pub sector growing faster than the unbranded sector as customers seek the guarantee of known brands.
Between 2006 and 2012 London, the East and rhe South East achieved higher economic growth than the rest of the country.
M&B results
M&B reported a 0.4% rise in like-for-like sales in the year to 28 September as pre-tax profit gre from £82m to £150m. The group’s total revenues of £1.89bn were 2.2% higher than FY 2012, driven by food sales growth of 3.3%, with drink sales growth of 1.0%. It said that food sales now account for more than half of total sales, reflecting the business’s strategy to generate long term growth from this market.
Like-for-like sales growth of 0.4% included like-for-like food sales growth of 0.8% and a like-for-like drink sales decline of 0.2%. It said that like-for-like sales were driven by increases in price and spend, with volumes lower in both categories. Food sales growth was weighted towards the first half of the year, with a number of the year’s key calendar events falling into the first half.
"In our restaurants and pubs, we are in the early stages of a project to replace our till, payment, table management and kitchen management systems," sais Alistair Darby, chief executive.
"The new systems will enable the delivery of significantly improved guest service, measured both in quality and speed, and allow improvements in menus and promotional activity to manage our gross margins better. The new systems are being rolled out at pace across the business, with 125 sites live at the year end and 320 sites by the end of November.
