Robinsons buffeted by ‘perfect storm’
STOCKPORT brewer Frederic Robinson has seen its profits more than halve after grappling with “the perfect storm”.
In the group’s latest accounts company chairman Peter Robinson said trading conditions at the start of 2008 were difficult and became progressively worse, culminating in the perfect storm.
For Mr Robinson the perfect storm was a result of a range of factors including the smoking ban, a hike in beer duty, bad weather, lower fruit machine revenue and repair bills.
During the year to December 31 pre-tax profits dived by 62% to £2m on sales of £55.2m, up 1%. Tougher trading pushed down the group’s gross margin from 17% to 13%.
Mr Robinson said: “Trading conditions at the start of the year were difficult but got progressively worse as the year went on, due to a number of reasons, resulting in what can best be described as the perfect storm.”
He added: “The cost of running temporary managed houses was substantially up, due to the increased number of temporary managed houses. Major steps have and are being taken to reduce costs. Trade levels are continuing to drop nationally and, at present, show no signs of levelling out.”
The brewer spent £1.2m on its pub estate and £1.7m upgrading its bottling line. It also bought two pubs and sold six “poorly performing houses”.
Mr Robinson said it had become more difficult to find tenants with the capital to take on a pub, “due largely to the banks’ reluctance to lend to small business”.
