Belhaven owner toasts Easter trading
● Warm weather drives sales growth in outgoing CEO’S swansong results
Greene King boss Rooney Anand has bowed out of his role as chief executive at the pubs and brewery group after posting strong Easter trading figures, with good weather driving up sales.
In a trading update for the 52 weeks to 28 April, Greene King, whose portfolio includes the 300-year-old Belhaven Brewery in East Lothian and the Hungry Horse and Chef & Brewer brands, revealed that like-for-like sales in its pubs company division were up by 2.9 per cent.
The results are to be Anand’s parting words from the role, with Merlin Entertainments executive Nick Mackenzie set to take over leadership of the group from today.
Anand departs the business after serving a near 14-year term at the helm, making him one of the longest-serving CEOS of any listed company.
The update revealed that Greene King’s portfolio of local pubs performed particularly well, with revenues increasing by 4.6 per cent in the period.
Easter sales were also 4.6 per cent higher versus the 2018 Easter weekend, pushed on by this year’s spring sunshine and standout results from the Chef & Brewer brand, which recorded growth of 15.3 per cent.
The figures were also helped by favourable comparisons with the same period last year, when spring trading was hampered by the so-called Beast from the East.
The group’s pub partners arm notched up a 1.6 per cent net income rise for the 52 weeks, however like-for-like profits dropped by 1.4 per cent. Own-brewed beer volumes slipped 3.4 per cent, slightly outperforming the UK ale market which was down 4.2 per cent.
The company forecasts fullyear pre-tax profits to come in between £244 million and £247m, while it expects to limit net cost inflation this year to between £10m and £20m. It has also made further progress with its debt refinancing plan, repaying £393m, or 51 per cent, of the Spirit debenture and remains “broadly on track” to deliver its disposals programme and site acquisitions for the year.
Anand 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.”
The Suffolk-based group, which acquired Dunbar-based Belhaven in 2005, recently held a series of celebrations in honour of the brewery’s 300th anniversary.
Sophie Lund-yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “By most standards, Greene King’s results this morning would be seen as good news, with strong performances across the key Pub Company and Pub Partners divisions.
“Given the weather was hampering efforts last year, it’s unfortunate trading hasn’t been spectacular while the elements are in its favour.
“Investors are making sure it’s known that good isn’t necessarily going to be good enough. Greene King will need to follow up this set of results with a string of more positive numbers if we’re to believe it’s out of the woods.”
“Greene King is well positioned to make further progress and continue outperforming the market”
ROONEY ANAND