The Faversham-based business, which operates 280 pubs across Kent, London and the South East, reported revenue of £162.6m for the year to 27 June 2026, down 1.1% on the previous year.
Join our WhatsApp channel: The Morning Round-Up
Get the biggest pub trade stories straight to your phone. Listen to our one-minute daily news briefing and receive breaking news, exclusives and sector updates throughout the day. Remember to turn notifications on in the top right corner!
Profit before one-off costs increased 1.8% to £7.8m, while statutory profit before tax fell from £6.3m to £3.6m, reflecting impairment charges on 15 properties.
Neame told The Morning Advertiser (MA) the pubs business had performed strongly, particularly in London, while the Brewing and Brands division was facing pressure from falling volumes and higher logistics costs.
London boost
Retail like-for-like sales were up 3.8% during the year, with pubs inside the M25 up 10.1%. Sites outside the M25 were up 0.9%.
Neame said: “What’s driving this is, firstly, I think they are fundamentally good pubs. Secondly, London is very busy again. There’s a lot going on from a tourist point of view, a lot going on from an office point of view. More people are going back to the office, so there’s just more activity. There is also higher average earnings here and higher disposable income.”
He said Shepherd Neame’s London pubs had benefited from strong teams, investment and a differentiated offer. He added that current trading had been more balanced, with the gap between London and outside London “negligible” over the summer.
He added: “Those lovely coastal sites and hotels were all buzzing through the summer. Obviously, weather was a factor. But I do think generally there is a bit of a feel good factor that has come back over the summer. It felt as if people were willing to be in the UK, rather than wanting to go overseas, doing things out and about with their family and friends.
A number of our sites broke record after record, week after week, which is very encouraging.
Jonathan Neame
For the 13 weeks to 26 September, retail like-for-like sales were up 6.7%, while total beer volumes were up 1.8%.
Neame said the FIFA World Cup had been “very distorted” for trade, depending on the style of pub.
“A handful of the games were very positive for trade. It tends to benefit those community pubs, tenanted community pubs, which have got good Sky Sports. It tends to disbenefit those outlets where you go out for a meal at weekends to dine. There are winners and losers.”
Across the full year, retail drink sales rose 5.8% on a like-for-like basis, while food sales were up 1.5%. Tenanted pub income increased 5% to £37.4m, with divisional operating profit up 4.1% to £13.1m.
Brewing review
The company’s Brewing and Brands division saw revenue fall 4.6% to £42.8m, while divisional operating profit dropped from £1m to £100,000. Total beer volume was down 5.4%, while own beer volume fell 9.6%.
Neame said the business was now reviewing its Brewing and Brands strategy, but added brewing remained central to Shepherd Neame.
“I’m not going to say too much on this because a review is a review and I don’t want to prejudge it. But the issues that we’re grappling with are the same issues that anybody who’s in drinks or drinks distribution is facing, namely logistics costs are going up, volumes are going down, therefore margins are being squeezed.”
He said some brewery plant was also “end of life or reaching end of life”, meaning investment would be needed.
“The profitability this year is down, which is masking the very, very strong performance and profitability in our pubs.”
The company said it had been focusing more on its heartland, refreshing brands and driving more of its own beer through its pub estate.
Neame said: “In both our tenanted and our retail estate, we’ve been getting like-for-like growth of between 3% and 5% in our own beer. Customers are preferring our beer over other people’s beer and getting a bigger share of voice of the total beer available in an individual outlet.
“It seems an appropriate time to have a proper stand back and review our strategy. We do make the point that brewing is integral to our identity and ultimately to our prosperity.”
Investment and costs
Shepherd Neame invested £14.6m during the year, including major London projects at the White Horse and Bower in Westminster and the Hoop and Grapes in Farringdon.
The business said investment would continue to focus on London sites, including the Coach and Horses in Mayfair and the Jamaica Winehouse in the City, while also shifting more attention towards inns and hotels.
Neame said: “We’re finding this is a productive and effective way to grow the business. But we do say also that we’re going to increasingly pivot towards our inns and accommodation, inns and hotels. We’ve got a bedroom refurbishment programme underway at the moment and we’re on site in a number of hotels to refurbish the rooms.”
He said accommodation trends had improved over the past six months.
“I think we feel increasingly confident that, with investment in the rooms and the overall facilities, we can continue to grow those businesses.”
On costs, Neame said Shepherd Neame wanted more certainty from Government on business rates, as well as action on VAT, employment costs and draught beer duty.
He said: “Certainty is everything. Give us the certainty. Secondly, we dream of lower VAT. We should never lose sight of the fact that the whole of Europe has got a lower rate of VAT for hospitality because of the obvious benefit in job creation that gives.”
Neame said changes to employer national insurance had been “catastrophic for young people’s jobs” and called for the threshold to be raised or the policy amended for under-21s or under-25s.
He also said the gap between duty on draught beer and packaged beer should continue to increase.
“The economic footprint that is created by drinking in the pub is significant in terms of job creation and other taxes.”
Neame also warned against proposals for a tourism tax, particularly given Shepherd Neame’s coastal and accommodation-led sites.
He said: “I don’t think there’s any scenario in which we can say we welcome the tax. It’s definitely unwelcome. There are some scenarios where people are saying all of that money will go into a local BID or tourism board and that will then be reinvested and drive more footfall. Great. But there are other scenarios where that would just go into the local council’s coffers.”
He added: “There’s very little merit in taking money to spend it on our behalf and never seeing the benefit of it. It’s not welcome. It’s not necessary. There are other ways of growing the tourism industry.”
