Punch profits down as it announces completion of disposals
Punch Taverns confirmed that it had completed its pub disposal programme as it revealed a drop in pre-tax profits.
Pre-tax profit before tax was £54.7m, down from £348m in 2015, for the 28 weeks to 5 March. The pub group the figure reflected the impact of £288m of disposals in the last 18 months.
Revenue stood at £213m, down slightly on £222m for the same period in 2015.
Punch opened its first fully managed pub in the period and has plans for three such sites opened by August 2016. The sites will become ‘houses of excellence' which will double as training centres and development sites.
It reported that its retail contracts were a success - whereby Punch retains the sales and cost of sales, along with pub costs, but pays the publican a percentage of sales.
Punch has identified 121 pubs available to roll-out to the retail contract, with 50 pubs open currently.
Chief executive Duncan Garrood said: "We are already making good progress delivering on the strategy we set out in November 2015. We have launched new operating models, renewed our focus on customer service and delivered improved support to our publicans.
"The roll-out of our new retail contract is progressing well with underlying profit and sales post conversion being ahead of our initial expectations."
Punch Taverns launches new HR toolkit to help publicans >>
Punch records £105m loss after cost of restructuring >>
Latest video from The Caterer