Belhaven owner Greene King has reported managed pub sales saw 2.9% like-for-like growth for the 52 weeks to 28 April 2019.
The company said this reflected “the successful programmes in place to drive industry-leading value, service and quality for our customers”.
The report added, “We saw good drink volume growth across Pub Company and, in particular, in our 1,000 drink-led Greene King local pubs, which recorded like-for-like sales up 4.6%. Like-for-like sales for the last 16 weeks were up 2.4%.
“Easter like-for-like sales were up 4.6% against last year’s Easter weekend, helped by the good weather and particularly strong trading from Chef & Brewer, which recorded like-for-like sales of 15.3%. Pub Partners like-for-like net income for the 52 weeks was up 1.6% while like-for-like profit was down 1.4%.
“In Brewing & Brands, total beer volumes were up 0.9% and own-brewed volumes were down 3.4% against a UK ale market down 4.2%. During the second half of the financial year, we made further progress on our debt refinancing plan.
“By the year end, we had repaid £393m, or 51% of the Spirit debenture, while we tapped the Greene King securitisation for £250m at 3.6%, creating headroom within our revolving credit facility for future bond repayments from the debenture.
“We expect to limit net cost inflation this year to between £10-20m and for full year profit before tax, non-underlying and exceptional items to be between £244m and £247m. We are broadly on track to deliver our disposals programme and new builds/single site acquisitions for the year.”
Rooney Anand, chief executive officer, said, “We have traded strongly this year and have returned to market outperformance. As I hand over to my successor Nick Mackenzie, I believe that, with our strong pub and beer brands, talented and dedicated team and high-quality estate, Greene King is well positioned to make further progress and continue outperforming the market.”