Three cheers for Birmingham pub group

PUB group Mitchells & Butlers is finding plenty to cheer about after creating momentum to turn around its “lagging” performance.

The Birmingham-based group, which operates more than 1,800 sites across 16 brands including Harvester, Toby Carvery, All Bar One, and Miller & Carter, saw a small improvement in like-for-like sales in the second half of its financial year.

That followed a 1.6% drop in comparable sales in the first half, and the change – attributed in part to capital investment in its estate – has seen the group move “from lagging the market, to outperforming consistently”.

Overall, pre-tax profits were down by one-quarter to £94m and revenues were down 0.7% to £2.09bn in the 52 weeks to September 24.

Chief executive Phil Urban said: “During the year we have made good progress in our three priority areas: building a more balanced business; instilling a more commercial culture; and driving an innovation agenda.

“This focus is starting to have a positive effect on our sales, with improved performance against a subdued market in recent months through continuation of the momentum we saw start in the second half of last year.

“Sales growth in the first eight weeks was impacted by the Rugby World Cup in the prior year, but I’m encouraged by the underlying momentum which has seen recent weeks return to the levels seen in the summer.  

 

“In the next year, as previously announced, we face external cost headwinds, notably from further wage inflation, the recent business rates review and exchange rate movements.  We are working hard to mitigate these headwinds wherever possible, both through building on our sales momentum and active management of our cost base.”