Brewer and pub owner Joseph Holt saw turnover rise 10% to £65.5m in the year to December 31, 2017, with pre-tax profit up 11% to £3m.

Chairman, Richard Lee, said: “These excellent numbers resulted from a combination of concentrating on our core activities, developing the pubs we acquired during the previous year, and much hard work.

“I reported last year on the acquisition of five new houses: The Railway (Buxton), the Mill at Upton (Cheshire), The Clocktower (Northwich), The Quadrant (Streftord), and the Lychgate (Standish).

“We spent more than £5m on the acquisition and development of the pubs. They are all showing encouraging initial results and we are anticipating a significant contribution from them during 2018.

“Food now accounts for 25% of our total turnover, and we aim to increase this further over the next two years. We have, in contrast to much of the brewing industry, increased our brewery volumes in the past two years.”