Spirit Pub Company outperformed the market again in the final 12 weeks of its financial year and today told investors that profits would be better than expected.
“We had a great final quarter even though the weather was much worse this summer than last year,” said chief executive Mike Tye.
“Volume growth was across all our brands and Taylor Walker, particularly in London, had a really great year.”
Final-quarter sales in Spirit’s more than 750 managed pubs rose by 2.1% in the 12 weeks to mid-August and by 4.4% in the full year.
In the 450-plus leased pubs annual turnover rose by 2.8%.
Analysts raised their forecasts for the company from an average pre-tax profit of £57.3 million to around £59.5 million, up from £54.3 million last year. Spirit shares rose 4%, or 3p, to 80p.
Tye said that for the first time since its demerger from Punch Taverns three years ago the group had started to buy up pubs. It acquired 22 in the last year with 11 of them during the last quarter.
“These pubs show almost immediate improvement immediately after we have rebranded them,” he said. “We convert them into Flaming Grills, Chef & Brewers, Fayre & Square or Taylor Walker outlets and see an uplift within weeks of them re-opening.”
Spirit is even starting to roll out Taylor Walker — a brand that began as a brewery in Stepney in 1730 — across the country.
Tye said: “It is a perfect metropolitan pub format and we’ve taken it to Birmingham, Manchester, York and Edinburgh.”
He said that the World Cup had a “broadly neutral” effect across the group’s 1200-plus pubs, with better drinks sales offset by lower food sales in those outlets which showed matches.
On the weather front, Tye said: “People reckoned July was pretty good but it was actually nothing like as good as last year’s and August was frankly pretty cold and wet.
“While the market still remains challenging, the strategy we have put in place continues to deliver consistently,” he said.
