Greene King sold 700,000 meals in ‘particularly strong' Easter

Pub company Greene King said it enjoyed a "particularly strong" Easter as it revealed a like-for-like sales rise of 2.2% over the year to 21 April 2013.

Greene King sold a record 700,000 meals over the four-day period during Easter and delivered like-for-like cover growth of 5.2%, which helped to drive like-for-like sales growth of 7.1%.

Like-for-like food sales were up by 2.7%, while like-for-like room sales rose by 3.1%. The average EBITDA per pub in Pub Partners was up by 4.6% after 48 weeks.

Rooney Anand, chief executive, said: "Although trading conditions were more demanding in the second half of our financial year, our business has once again demonstrated its resilience and we have delivered good progress across all businesses."

Greene King said it expected to add 33 new retail sites to its estate during the year, taking its retail estate to 987 sites by year-end. Meanwhile it is reducing the size of the Pub Partners' estate by 108 sites to 1272 pubs.

In Greene King's core brand own-brewed volumes were up 0.8% after 51 weeks.