Burtonwood profits rise

Burtonwood Brewery said today its strategy of concentrating on freehold and rural tenanted pubs was paying off and it was not exposed to a high-street branded pub sector "afflicted by over-supply and quickly changing consumer tastes".

The group reported pre-tax profits for the year to 29 March of £5.6m, compared with £7.7m at the same point last year.

But after taking out the effect of one-off items and depreciation, profits for the year rose by 14.7% to £9.3m.

During the year the chain bought the freehold interest in 94 pubs in the US, acquired six UK pubs and, since the year end, had disposed of a number of its poorly performing pubs.

"We will continue to drive as much profit as we can from our existing assets, while using our financial fire power to make further acquisitions," said chairman Richard Gilchrist.

by Nic Paton