In the first 40 weeks of the year, Greene King achieved like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of 1.1%. Excluding Fayre & Square, LFL sales were up by 1.6%. Over the last 16 weeks, the firm has seen a strong Christmas trading period alongside the usual quieter months of November and January.
LFL sales over the three Christmas weeks were up 4.5%, despite tough comparisons with the previous Christmas. Sales were driven by particularly strong growth in London. The group once again broke its record for Christmas Day with sales of £7.4m, up 6.0% on the previous year.
LFL net income in Pub Partners was up 3.5% after 40 weeks, maintaining its strong performance this year. In a cask ale market down 3.8%, own-brewed volume (OBV) in Brewing & Brands was down 4.2%.
Further progress was made on the Spirit integration with over 1,000 pubs now converted to the 'best of both' Pub Company IT system and ongoing synergy savings realised.
Green King also made further progress on the delivery of its estate plan. It reached its target of 11 new pub acquisitions, of which six were Farmhouse Inns and five were Hungry Horse.
The firm's disposal programme accelerated in the second half as expected. So far this year, it has sold 59 pubs across both Pub Company and Pub Partners for total proceeds of c.£35m. It anticipates disposing of a further 50-60 pubs this year, raising proceeds of c. £30-40m.
Looking ahead, despite continued economic uncertainty and significant cost pressures, Green King will remain focused on building its retail pub brands, delivering great experiences to our guests and completing the Spirit integration.