Food sales at Marston’s lift
BREWER and pub operator Marston’s yesterday said that profits had continued to fall despite a surge in demand for cask ales and pub food.
Marston’s, which owns 2,200 UK pubs including the Pitcher & Piano chain, reported pre-tax profits of £70.3m for the year ended 3 October 2009, down 13.5 per cent on the year before.
In June, the company tapped shareholders for £165.5m and intends to use the bulk of the cash to build 60 large food-led pubs over the next three years.
Sales seem to be lifting. Like-for-like sales slipped 0.6 per cent over the year, but the company said that in the last nine weeks they have climbed by 2.7 per cent.
Like-for-like sales have jumped 3.1 per cent in the eight weeks to Nov 28 with food sales growing by 5.3 percent.
Investec analysts were cheered by the progress and said that while it might take a while to turn around the business, Marston’s is underpinned by “an attractive and relatively secure yield”.
Chief executive Ralph Findlay said: “We have a strong platform to make further progress over the coming year.”