Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Pub group Greene King reported a fall in annual profits and warned that poor weather and consumer uncertainty would hurt sales in the coming year.
'Over the first eight weeks of the new financial year, trading was impacted by the poor weather and LFL sales in Pub Company were below last year's strong comparatives,' the company said. 'Political and consumer uncertainty is likely to continue to weigh on confidence and the cost inflationary environment persists.'
The dour outlook arrived as the company reported lower profits despite generating above-market growth.
For the year ended 28 April, statutory profits fell 12.5% to £172.8m and revenue grew 1.8% to £2.2bn.
The dividend per share of 33.2p; long-term track record of attractive, sustainable dividend
Pub Company like-for-like (LFL) sales were ahead of the market at 2.9%, driven by 'effective investments in value, service and quality (VSQ), our four core brand focus and boosted by the good weather and successful World Cup,' the company said.
Pub Partners LFL net income rose 1.5% and LFL net profit fell 0.3%, while Brewing & Brands revenue was up 5.8%
'The business delivered good results last year, regaining trading momentum in Pub Company and returning to market outperformance while fulfilling a strong cost mitigation programme and making further progress refinancing the Spirit debenture,' said Nick Mackenzie, chief executive.
'The existing strategy we have in place has led the business through challenging times. I am looking forward to building on Greene King's strong foundations with a focus on innovation, on developing our people and on customer service to further enhance our brands and deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders.'
At 8:20am: (LON:GNK) Greene King PLC share price was +11.5p at 591.5p