Managed pubs slump leads to Eldridge Pope warning

Figures from pub company Eldridge Pope show that tenanted pubs are performing better than managed outlets - confirming the trend reported by several other pub operators this week.

Eldridge Pope said today that trading conditions for most of its outlets continued to be very difficult.

It added that while the company's 43 tenanted pubs continued to trade in line with expectations, sales across its managed estate has been below expectations.

Like-for-like sales across the tenanted porfolio were ahead by 4.1% in the 26 weeks to 3 April.

But across the 70-strong managed estate sales were down by 5.6%.

This was made up of a 2.9% increase in the group's 26 managed pubs, a 3.7% fall at the 30-strong inns division, and an 11.3% slump in the 24-strong bars division.

Eldridge Pope warned that as a result the company's performance would be "materially below market expectations".

Its disclosure follows disappointing results yesterday from managed pubs operators JD Wetherspoon and Regent Inns, while tenanted pubs group Punch put in a strong performance.

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