Pub operator and brewery, Young's has posted preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 2 April 2018, which show another highly successful year, despite a challenging market backdrop, with total revenue up 6.2% to £279.3m.
Managed house operations outperformed the sector once again with revenues up 6.9% to £266.4m, underpinned by industry-leading like-for-like sales growth of 4.2%. Like-for-like revenues at the Ram Pub Company has risen by 1.6%.
The group continued investment in future growth with £53m of investment made during the year through acquisitions and upgrades to our existing estate.
Young's has made a good start to the current financial year since the period end; managed house revenue in the first seven weeks was up 11.0% in total and up 7.5% on a like-for-like basis, despite very strong comparatives.
Patrick Dardis (pictured), Chief Executive, commented, “I am delighted with this strong set of results, delivered against a challenging market backdrop, as they demonstrate the benefit of our strategy of running a differentiated, premium and well- invested pub estate in superb locations and with a highly customer-centric approach.
“We have continued to invest in our future growth through a combination of exciting acquisitions and investment in our existing estate while also upgrading our technology to enhance the customer experience and realise productivity gains.
“We’ve started the year well and, despite being up against very strong comparatives in the previous year, managed houses revenue in the first seven weeks was up 11.0% in total and up 7.5% on a like- for-like basis.
“Although uncertainty prevails in both the political and economic environment, we are confident that our strategy will continue to deliver superior shareholder returns. I am a firm believer that the traditional British pub will never go out of fashion and, as a result, I’m both excited and optimistic about the year ahead.”
Chris Wickham, analyst at Equity Development, said, “Despite slower growth in adjusted profit, Young’s looks in good financial shape, as revenues continued to move forward over the past 12 months, topped up by a particularly strong performance for the year in its wholly managed pubs.
“But the most salient feature of the results has to be Young's sizzling start to the new financial year, as the return of good weather and management’s sharp eye on the ball prompted extremely encouraging like for like sales growth since the start of April. With its higher value London and South East bias continuing to deliver, Young's appears to be avoiding the woes felt by many others in its industry.”