Cheers to M&B figures
Mitchells & Butlers, the West Midlands-based pubs and restaurants group, today shrugged off the effects of the no smoking ban and flooding in England to announce a strong set of trading figures.
The Birmingham group, which operates over 2,000 outlets including Harvester, O'Neill's, All Bar One and Toby Carvery, said like-for-like sales in the 18 weeks to September 15 lifted by 2.6 per cent.
"This represents a resilient performance during a period of poor weather, the introduction of the smoking ban in England and strong comparatives in July to September last year.
"Significant drinks market share gains have been made against an on-trade market where beer volumes fell by almost seven per cent in the four months to the end of August," the trading statement said.
And for the 50 weeks to September 15 sales increased by 3.2 per cent, with drinks sales up 2.5 per cent and food sales rising 5.3 per cent, with local pubs performing "very strongly", particularly in food – average weekly sales per managed pub were up six per cent to £18,500.
In the 11 weeks since the introduction of the smoking ban, sales in English pubs excluding those already converted to non-smoking, increased by 2.2 per cent, with drinks sales up just under one per cent and food sales jumping 5.8 per cent. "This result is in line with our expectations of the initial impact from the ban before the onset of winter. We are encouraged by trading in Scotland up 3.9 per cent in the last 18 weeks and in the longer term we continue to believe the overall impact of the ban will be beneficial to our business," the statement added.
A strategy emphasising quality, value and innovation had been key to the trading performance. Average retail price rises over the year of less than two per cent for food and drink remained below inflation, reinforcing the "value for money" philosophy in a market characterised by substantial real price increases.
"Our focus remains on generating profitable volume growth and we are making further revenue investment in the value of our menus to strengthen our competitive position. Customer service standards have continued to be enhanced by our staff training programmes, evidenced by increased mystery guest scores.
"Sales increases have been efficiently converted into profits growth.
"This has been achieved through further improvements in employee productivity, purchasing gains and effective cost controls which have overcome £8 million of external regulatory cost increases," the statement said.