Strong festive period cheers M&B as sales show growth
BIRMINGHAM-based pubco Mitchells & Butlers has announced a year-to-date increase of 2% in like-for-like sales, boosted by a strong Christmas trading period.
The company said its trading performance over the festive period was strong and included its biggest ever sales week.
Over the three-week festive period to January 4, like-for-like sales rose by 2.6% and like-for-like food volumes by 1.3% thanks to the serving of 6.9m meals across its estate. Trading on Christmas Day was particularly strong, with like-for-like sales growth of 7.5% and 193,000 meals sold.
In a trading update ahead of its AGM, the group said sales had also been helped by the milder winter weather compared to last year.
Like-for-like sales in the 52 weeks to September 28 were up 0.4%, with strong growth in food sales, although drink sales declined slightly. In the first eight weeks of the new trading year sales rose 0.1%, the performance again dragged down by reduced sales of alcohol.
For the 17 weeks to January 25, overall sales rose 2% with food sales rising 2.5% and drink sales up 1.3%.
The year also saw the opening of 10 new venues, including the four sites acquired from Convivial London Pubs. It said it was now accelerating investment into the expansion of selected brands and the funding injection into its new pub systems was progressing on schedule with encouraging results, with nearly 400 now installed.
It added there had been no material change to the financial position of the business since the full year results announcement.
Alistair Darby, M&B chief executive, said: “We have delivered a strong trading performance over our busiest time of the year, with good sales growth. I was delighted that almost 200,000 people shared their Christmas Day with us and would like to thank the 18,000 staff who worked with such enthusiasm to provide them with a great experience.
“We are reducing staff turnover, modernising our systems, increasing guest satisfaction and delivering against our transformation plan to create sustainable value for shareholders.”
