THE winter freeze caused “difficulties” for many licensees operating pubs owned by Solihull-based pubco Enterprise Inns, it reports today.
The company said it enjoyed a solid start to the financial but the bad weather hit trading figures in the vital lead-in period up to Christmas.
In an interim management statement for the 16 weeks to January 15, 2011, Enterprise said: “It is a tribute to the resilience of our licensees and the determination of their customers that we estimate the impact of these extreme conditions on our first quarter operating profit to be no more than £2m.
“We can take further encouragement from performance during the three weeks following the quarter end where, against easier comparables due to last year’s poor weather, some of this December shortfall has already been recovered.
“Notwithstanding the weather related trading difficulties over Christmas, we estimate that average net income per pub is down by around 1% during the period, with like-for-like net income per pub in the substantive estate down by around 2%, in line with that reported for the last financial year.”
Enterprise said it remained confident the average net income per pub for the whole estate, and like-for-like net income in the substantive estate, would improve during the year.
The firm is continuing with its programme of disposing of its non-core pubs which it says “do not fit the future profile of the business”.
In the period, it completed or exchanged contracts for the sale of 105 pubs, generating net proceeds of £32m, a profit of £4m over book value.
In the full year, it expected to dispose of 400-500 pubs, generating total net proceeds in excess of £125m, the firm said.
“We continue to take advantage of the strong market for sale and leaseback properties in London, selling a total of 58 pubs for net proceeds of £73m, a profit of £15m over book value, based upon 35-year leases back to ETI at an average rental cost of 6.8%,” the statement added.
