Performance highlights
- Another period of strong trading, with a 7.7% revenue increase against a tough comparative;
- Managed house like-for-like revenue up 5.4%, fifth consecutive summer of growth over 5%;
- Young’s managed estate delivered further strong like-for-like performance, Geronimo returned to growth;
- Ram Pub Company (tenanted division) revenue growth of 9.2%, and 3.8% like-for-like;
- Strong adjusted operating margin of 18.5%, maintained despite impact of National Living Wage;
- £20.4 million invested in the period, including acquisition of two freeholds – Woolpack (Bermondsey) and Blue Boar (Chipping Norton), our second Cotswolds pub;
- Net debt reduced by £2.9 million to £127.3m, despite high level of investment;
- Recent launch of the Young’s app, “Young’s on Tap”, to further enhance the customer experience in our pubs;
- 20th consecutive year of interim dividend growth, this time up 6.0% to 8.88 pence per share;
- Trading over last thirteen weeks up 4.8% in total, and 3.0% like-for-like, impacted by our highly successful strategy to capitalise on last Autumn’s Rugby World Cup.
Patrick Dardis, Chief Executive of Young’s, commented:
“I am very pleased with this set of results. We have delivered sector-leading like-for-like growth of over 5% for the fifth summer in a row, as well as maintaining our operating margin. We have generated sufficient cash to allow us to invest heavily in our estate and increase the dividend for the 20th consecutive year whilst reducing our net debt.
Behind our success lies years of investment to create one of the highest quality pub estates in the UK. This has created hundreds of new jobs and we have trained thousands of people, contributing to our local communities and to the economy as a whole.
We continue to innovate to attract existing and new customers to our pubs and hotels. We have rolled out our very successful BurgerShack concept to 21 pubs, we are embracing the newfound British love for brunch, and we have just launched “Young’s on Tap”, an app that makes the experience of a Young’s pub even better.
There are challenges ahead: the uncertainty over Brexit and cost pressures such as the National Living Wage, the apprenticeship levy, and on a successful company like us, an exceptionally high increase in business rates. However, we will continue to stick to our winning strategy and grow our premium business by investing in our existing estate, acquiring new pubs and developing our people.
We have a proven strategy and an outstanding and well-invested estate, we also have the financial and management capacity to grow and there is real energy in our people across the business to take Young’s forward. We therefore feel confident about the future.”