Food fattens Jennings' profits
Food is boosting the earnings of traditional brewer and pub operator Jennings Brothers. The Cumbria-based group's interim results for the 26 weeks ending 29 March 1998 show that its food sales have gone up from 34% to 37% of managed house turnover.
Overall pre-tax profits are up by 27.5% to £908,000 on turnover just under £9m.
Finance director Andrew Swanston is so confident the positive trend will continue that he expects food sales to increase by at least a further 3% by the time the company issues its end-of-year results in September.
"With these figures we do not have the benefit of the Easter weekend so I suspect that when we come to our next figures we could even exceed 40%," said Swanston.
"We offer good, value-for-money eating and, while there has been a trend towards eating out nationally, we have seen our pubs take full advantage of this."
