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For the year to 31 March 2026, it saw record sales of £105.6m and profit before tax of £8.8m.
Revenue was up 5.7% to £105.6m for the period (£99.9m in 2025) with a rise in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 13.9% to £12.3m.
The business thanked all those who had played a part in this landmark set of results, highlighting its core values of being honest, personal, savvy, together, passionate and proud across its three trading divisions - managed house, pub partners and brewing.
During the period, the north-west brewing and pub group, which operates 138 pubs, also saw core draught beer sales increase by 3.7% including the launch of Boddingtons Cask Bitter after a 12-year hiatus - a beer JW Lees now brews and distributes under a licence from Budweiser Brewing Group.
Company investment
The business also announced it will bring its managed pubs and inns & hotels divisions together under the leadership of Chris Moulson as director of operations from April next year.
The seventh-generation family brewing company also revealed it had invested more than £10m into the portfolio during the year including more than 20 major refurbishments alongside growth in its retail operator format, which is now in place at eight of the sites as well as running 45 managed venues and 85 pub partner sites.
In addition, there has been two new acquisitions - the Royal Oak in Glossop and the Bull’s Head in Poynton, which are currently receiving investments before reopening later this month (July) and September respectively.
Furthermore, it also outlined accolades it has been awarded such as coming first in the sector KAM 2025 Tenant Track survey, Private Business of the Year and FTSE 2026 High Growth 50 alongside boss William Lees-Jones named as Business Leader at this year’s Publican Awards.
On the results, Lees-Jones said: “It’s fantastic for JW Lees to report a record year both in terms of turnover and profitability.
“The long hot summer of 2025 was a great way to start the year and our teams pulled together to drive higher productivity at JW Lees to new levels.”
Whatever it takes
He added: “Brewing and hospitality are tough sectors right now and we continue to be impacted by above-inflation rises in labour rates, high business rates and little or no useful support from [the] Government.
“We hope Andy Burnham can change all that with more favourable policies to help the hospitality sector, which will also create new jobs.
“For family businesses like JW Lees, the changes Rachel Reeves brought in to change Business Property Relief (BPR) have made things even tougher since we are now having to plan for higher levels of inheritance tax for our family shareholders and this will inevitably lead to reduced investment in the business.
“At a time when the UK economy desperately needs growth, it seems unfair the Government has handed competitive advantage to overseas companies and private equity who are not exposed to these costs and negatively impacts UK family business’ ability to invest with family businesses making up more than 50% of all UK private sector jobs.
“JW Lees will do whatever it takes to remain a family company as we approach our 200th anniversary in 2028.”
