Young's Delighted With Annual Performance, Tough Comparatives Ahead

LONDON (Alliance News) - Young & Co's Brewery PLC on Thursday reported "another highly successful year" despite a continued subdued market.

However, the pub owner and brewer did say things since the end of its last financial year have been more difficult, with tough comparables ahead.

Revenue in the 52 weeks to April 1 rose 8.7% on the year before to GBP303.7 million, with managed house revenue up 9.0% to GBP290.3 million. Like-for-like sales growth was 5.1%.

In the Ram Pub Co, revenue climbed 3.2%, but like-for-like, it rose 5.0%, in what Young's said was a good year for the business.

Young's posted an annual pretax profit of GBP39.5 million, up 5.1% on financial 2018, with the adjusted figure climbing 5.9% to GBP43.4 million.

Young's is paying a final dividend of 10.81 pence per share, giving a total of 20.78p for the year compared to 19.61p the year prior. The brewer said this means a 22nd year in a row of annual dividend growth.

"I am very pleased to announce such a strong set of results which are a testament to the quality of our incredible people who bring our premium positioned pubs to life. These results demonstrate that our strategy continues to deliver," said Chief Executive Patrick Dardis.

"The current economic and political climate remains a challenge, and with each year the costs to our business increase; I am delighted, despite this, that the Young's team has delivered these results," he added.

In the first 13 weeks of Young's new financial year, sales have risen 9.4% year-on-year and 2.6% like-for-like, which it said represents "tough" comparatives.

There is a further tough comparator ahead this summer, given the football World Cup and exceptionally hot weather during 2018.

"It has been a tough start to the year against very strong comparatives with the only good weather coming in the Easter bank holiday this year," said Dardis.

"Looking ahead, the amazing weather throughout the summer of 2018 and England's world cup success sets a high benchmark for the coming months. However, we remain confident we will continue our strong growth story in the coming year."

Shares were 1.2% higher on Thursday at a price of 1,870.00 pence each.