Greene King has reported a strong Christmas trading period for its Pub Company, with like-for-like sales up 4.5%.
In the first 40 weeks of its year, the Pub Company achieved like-for-like sales growth of 1.1%. Excluding Fayre & Square, like-for-like sales rose 1.6%.
Like-for-like net income in Pub Partners was up 3.5% after 40 weeks, maintaining its strong performance this year. In a cask ale market down 3.8%, own-brewed volume was down 4.2%.
Further progress was made on the Spirit integration with more than 1,000 pubs now converted to the ‘best of both’ Pub Company IT system and ongoing synergy savings realised.
A Greene King spokesperson said: “We also made further progress on the delivery of our estate plan. We reached our target of 11 new pub acquisitions, of which six were Farmhouse Inns and five were Hungry Horse.
“Our disposal programme accelerated in the second half, as expected. So far this year, we have sold 59 pubs across both Pub Company and Pub Partners for total proceeds of circa £35m. We anticipate disposing a further 50-60 pubs this year, raising proceeds of circa £30m to 40m.”
Looking ahead, despite continued economic uncertainty and significant cost pressures, Greene King says it remain focused on building retail pub brands, delivering great experiences to guests and completing the Spirit integration.
“We are confident that the combined strength of our brands, pubs, people and cash generation leaves us well placed to deliver another year of progress, value creation and returns for our shareholders,” the company said.
