Peach Pub Company turnover up 6% but profits drop
Peach Pub Company has seen its turnover increase 6% in 2013, although its pre-tax profit fell by over £300,000.
The company posted a turnover for the 12 months to 29 December 2013 of £20.5m, up from £19.3m the year before. However its pre-tax profit dropped from £375,000 the previous year to just £43,000 in 2013.
The company put the drop in profits down to costs related to closing the Almanack in Leicester. Peach operated the pub, which was in a retail centre, for three years but has decided to refocus on its prime market of market towns.
Peach said the results for the 16-strong group were positive, and put it on the way to its target of becoming a £30m, 22 pub business.
"It's a positive set of results and another year of growth under our belts, with plenty more to come as we continue moving ahead," said Peach co-founder Hamish Stoddart. "We battled the storms both literally and figuratively at the start, but as the year moved on, so did we and by the end we were ahead of plan and sales were showing a strong like-for-like growth.
"July was a fantastic month for the business with a really cracking performance across the board," he said. "The sun shone, people flocked to our pubs and the numbers were brilliant, 5% up that month in like-for-likes. August was tougher; good trading at the start but suddenly the market towns packed their bags and went on holiday and the weather wasn't as good as everyone expected. Everything, including the numbers, was a bit flat.
"September, though, has already started on a high note, with a real buzz in the pubs, and not only will we hit plan but we'll probably be about 2% above it by the end of the month. We're feeling energised by the arrival on Monday of our new finance director Joe Garthwaite, who brings big retail experience from both Sainsbury's and Bravissimo, and we're recruiting for the next stage of Peach as a growing individual pub group by looking for a senior operations director. If you want to take over from Spencer Graydon who moves to Whitbread soon, get your name in right now," he said.
Peach is due to open its 17th pub, the High Field in Edgbaston, in two weeks and said the outlook for September and the autumn remained good.