Mitchells & Butlers cheers rising sales
● Group’s vast portfolio includes Miller & Carter and Toby Carvery
Mitchells & Butlers, the pub and restaurant giant behind All Bar One and scores of wellknown Scottish watering holes including Edinburgh’s historic Sheep Heid Inn, has returned to profit growth in the first half.
The group, which also owns the Browns and Miller & Carter chains, said adjusted operating profit rose to £151 million in the 28 weeks to 13 April, up from £141 ma year earlier. Revenue nudged up to £1.19 billion, while like-for-likes ales rose an appetising 4.1 per cent.
The firm, whose other brands include the O’neill’s pub chain and Toby Car very, said its focus on efficiency was responsible for the improved performance.
Chief executive Phil Urban said: “This is a strong set of results, demonstrating that we continue to build momentum in the business, delivering sales grow th, sustained market outperformance and a return to operating profit growth.
“This strong performance comes from the progress we continue to make in our three priority areas: building a more balanced business; instilling a more commercial culture; and driving an innovation agenda.
“Success in this highly competitive market is dependent on a continuous stream of improvements, and that is what we are delivering with many small advances at site level driving significant benefits in aggregate. We will maintain our focus on these initiatives which we believe are transforming the business.”
Updating on recenttr ading, the group said like -forlike sales were up 3.8 per cent in the last 33 weeks, which includes the movement of Easter into the second half. It cautioned that current trading remained tough amid economic and political uncertainty, but added that it was confident of its ability to outperform the market.
Reflecting on its half-year performance, the group told investors: “Our trading performance has strengthened with like -for-like sales con - ti nu ing to outperform the market, which grew by circa 1 per cent in the period. Both our performance and that of the market benefits from the absence of snow which impacted the prior year and which is partly balanced by the movement of Easter into the second half this year.
“The net operating profit impact of these movements is a benefit of £5m. The drivers of our outperformance are the continued focus on enhancing the quality of our estate through investment and the Ignite 2 initiatives which have delivered improved trading performances across all of our brands.”
It added: “Our uninvested estate, of 1,350 sites, which has not received investment in the last year has also performed well with like-for-like sales growth of 2.1 per cent in the first half, demonstrating that capital investment is not the sole driver of improved trading performance.”
Other famous pub sin its Edinburgh portfolio include Deacon Brodies Tavern and the Kenilworth.
Mitchells & Butlers, founded in 1898, relied on beer for the bulk of its sales in the 1980s, but now sees about 50 per cent of total sales coming from food.
Liberum analysts noted that like-for-like sales growth of 4.7 per cent in the first quarter and 3.5 per cent in Q2 was ahead of market expectations.
“Success in this highly competitive market is dependent on a continuous stream of improvements, and that is what we are delivering”
PHIL URBAN, CEO