Belhaven owners, Greene King, revealed its preclose trading update for the 51 weeks to 21 April 2013 with its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 28 April 2013 being announced on 27 June. Retail like-for-like (LFL) sales were up 2.2% while food LFL sales were up 2.7%. It’s core brand own-brewed volumes were up 0.8%. Chief Executive Officer, Rooney Anand, said, “Although trading conditions were more demanding in the second half of our financial year, our business has once again demonstrated its resilience and we have delivered good progress across all businesses.” He continued, “Easter was particularly strong this year. We sold a record 700,000 meals over the four-day period.”
He added, “After 48 weeks, average EBITDA per pub in Pub Partners, our tenanted, franchised and leased business, was up 4.6%. Our strategy to reduce the size and improve the quality of the Pub Partners’ estate continues. We expect to have reduced our trading estate by 108 sites to 1272 sites through non-core disposals and reversetransfers in the year.”
In Brewing & Brands, the performance of our industry-leading brand portfolio has improved, despite the broader market remaining subdued. In a UK ale market down 3.8%, core brand ownbrewed volumes were up 0.8% after 51 weeks. The improvement in the second half was helped by renewed sales momentum on the back of our investment and innovation in our core ale brands.” However the company did not reveal any figures for Belhaven Best.