Owned by Tim Bird and Mary Mclaughlin, the Cheshire-based pubco, which was founded in 2009, reported a 9.2% uptick in like-for-like net turnover for the financial year ending Thursday 1 October.
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The company, which has previously scored the Best Drinks Offer at the Publican Awards four times, achieved net sales of £11.6m during the period, up by nearly £1m year-on-year.
Cheshire Cat operates seven village and rural pubs across Cheshire and North Staffordshire, including 2023’s Great British Pub Awards overall Pub of the Year, the Cholmondeley Arms in Malpas.
Record year
Each pub in its portfolio enjoyed a record year. In addition, the company said it had seen significant sales growth in each of the last five years on a like-for-like basis.
Commenting on the figures, McLaughlin said: “Tim and I are very proud of our teams and their magnificent efforts during the year.
“We all sat down together a year ago, in the knowledge of the challenges ahead, and came up with a business plan to drive each element of the business, including our food and drink act and our events business and guest accommodation.
“Each area has successfully exceeded targets, with our increasing range of events demonstrating the growing popularity of our pubs as a celebratory place to be.”
Original principles
The momentum has continued into the current financial year, with like-for-like net sales ahead by 8.5% for the first four weeks in October.
Looking ahead, Cheshire Cat said it planned to increase both its events spaces and guest accommodation by investing appropriately in several of its current pubs and adding to its portfolio, if and when the right opportunities arise within its trading region.
Bird added: “We have never moved away from our original principles of rooting our pubs in their local communities and offering our customers a great experience, delivered by excellent people serving quality food and drinks at reasonable prices”.
