The pubco, which is owned by real estate private equity firm Proprium Capital Partners, reported group turnover of £194.5m (2023: £182.0m), gross profit of £111.8m (2023: £104.4m), underlying operating profit of £37.2m (2023: £36.9m) and underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £59.7m (2023: £55.9m) in the 52 weeks ended 26 May 2024.
Current trade is further demonstrating resilience with its 1,400-pub estate trading through to January 2025 ahead of expectations, underpinned by “buoyant” drink sales and gaming machine income and further conversions of sites to its wet-led Proper Pubs business model.
Well-positioned
It added it was well-positioned to weather the impact of Budget changes to employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) and business rates while continuing to lobby Government to increase awareness of the social value of community pubs in the UK. And is looking to add further sites to its community focused, wet-led pub estate.
There has been investments of £36.8m across the group’s pub estate (2023: £27.7m) and the business acquired 37 sites from Fuller’s in May 2024 and 18 sites from Marston’s in September 2024.
Admiral Taverns CEO Chris Jowsey said: “In these evolving macro conditions, the resilience of our model has come to bear, and we anticipate a further structural shift towards leased and tenanted pubs.
Investments fundamental
“The investments made across our estate with over £36m reinvested over the year in supporting our licensees to develop and improve their wet-led pub offering, have clearly been fundamental to helping drive trading performance.
“However, it is perhaps the breadth of our wider support offering, from investment in energy saving initiatives to enhancements of our pub’s retail offering, that have been critical in helping our entrepreneurial licensees optimise profitable trade growth.
“Current trading is ahead of our expectations, demonstrating the strength and resilience of our business and estate and the group remains well positioned to continue to deliver profitable group growth and sustained strategic progress.”
