In its published annual results for the 53 weeks ended 29 September 2024, it said the macroeconomic environment continues to challenge the industry.
The group is the largest pub-owning company in the UK with 4,370 operating sites.
According to the report, its leased and tenanted estate Pub Partners has 2,735 pubs, Stonegate managed estate has 674 pubs and Craft Union, its operator managed division, has 612 pubs.
The group highlighted costs to the business as inflation in drink and food, and the Autumn Budget changes to national minimum wage, national living wage, the increase in national insurance contributions for employers and the reduction in the NI threshold.
Macroeconomic environment
It said while the macroeconomic environment continues to have an impact on the group with the cost-of-living crisis leading to lower profit and operating cashflows, “overall the group has delivered a highly respectable performance, further demonstrating the resilience of its high-quality pub portfolio”.
The company said in order to mitigate cost inflation, beer contracts have been renegotiated in the year and are locked in for three years while the wines and spirits contracts are currently being tendered.
It admitted the group’s size enables it to lever scale with suppliers, which can mitigate some cost pressures.
Spending habits
It also said: “Where consumers have more money in their pockets, this presents an opportunity, however, we need to be positioned to quickly adapt to changes in spending habits in order to not lose market share to competitors.”
The results for the group for the 53 weeks ended 29 September 2024 showed total revenue for the period was £1.75bn compared to £1.72bn in the 52 weeks ended 24 September 2023.
Of the £1.75bn, the managed segment contributed £974m (52 weeks 2023: £1.0bn) while the leased and tenanted pubs, being Pub Partners and Commercial Property, together contributed £440m (52 weeks 2023: £427m) and the operator-led segment contributed £333m (52 weeks 2023: £281m).
The group has disposed of 70 trading sites, five non-licensed and two non-trading properties, in the period.
