Profits up at Joesph Holt despite tough year
JOSEPH Holt, the long-standing Manchester brewer and pub operator, has reported higher profits, despite a fall in sales.
The 160-year-old independently-owned business, based on Empire Street near Strangeways prison, described 2012 as a “difficult trading year”, which chairman David Tully said had been met by cost controls and investment in its pub estate.
Pre-tax profits rose from £3.4m to £3.5m, as turnover fell from £46.5m in the 53 weeks to December 31 2011 to £45m in the 52 weeks to December 31 2012.
During the year it spent more than £2m on acquisitions, including the Horse & Jockey in Chorlton and the Five Ways Hotel in Hazel Grove, with both deals being completed towards the end of the financial year.
The business which employs around 1,000 staff and has approximately 120 pubs across the North West, the majority in Greater Manchester, said investing in its pubs is a “vital component in remaining a successful business.”
Among those ear-marked for upgrades in the current financial year are the Ape and Apple on John Dalton Street, Manchester, the Richmond in Southport and the Melville in Stretford.
Mr Tully said further good quality acquisitions are also being sought, and a conditional contract had been signed for a greenfield site in the Warrington area, which will be developed as a food pub over the next 18 months.
Referring to the tough market conditions, which has seen record numbers of pub closures, the chairman said: “We are delighted that the Chancellor announced in this year’s Budget that he is reducing beer duty by 1p a pint and has scrapped the Duty Escalator which has increased beer tax by 42% over the last five years.
“This needs to be part of a long term policy to freeze, or better still reduce, beer duty and so protect jobs and help prevent more pub closures,”
Holts, which prides itself on its contribution to its local community and to good causes said in 2012 its pubs had raised £71,000 for the armed forces’ charity Help for Heroes.
In 2014, the company plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its support for cancer treatment in Manchester by embarking on another fund-raising campaign for the city’s Christie Hospital.
In 1914 the then chairman Sir Edward Holt, son of the founder and twice Lord Mayor of Manchester, donated the first £2,000 to help fund a new laboratory studying the use of radium to treat cancer. This became the Holt Radium Institute, one of the first cancer treatment hospitals in the city, which merged with the Christie in 1932.
