Christmas boost for Bass pubs
Bass, the hotels to pubs group, has announced trading in line with expectations for the first three months of its financial year, which started on 1 October 2000.
Yesterday, Bass unveiled the £625m sale of 988 pubs to investment bank Nomura.
The pubs and restaurants that it still owns put in "a strong performance over Christmas and New Year, making up for poorer sales in the first two months of the financial year."
Sales were up by 3% overall, despite the disruption caused by temporary closures for refurbishment.
Over Christmas and the New Year, sales were up by 10% and like-for-like sales up by 2.4%.
Refurbishments are mainly at former Allied Domecq pubs. At the 116 sites converted so far, sales are increasing by an average 45%.
The hotels division (where the financial year starts three weeks later) had "continued to achieve strong profits growth, mainly in Europe".
In North America, the Inter-Continental hotels increased revenue per available room (revpar) by 4.7% and Crowne Plaza increased revpar by 4.9%.
The midmarket Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels increased revpar by 3.2% and 4.7% respectively.
In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Inter-Continental's revpar rose by 9.1% and Crowne Plaza's by 8.7%. Revpar at Holiday Inn grew by 6.1%.
Web links:
Full announcement (UK-Wire)
