Young's performs strongly in six months of ‘contrasting fortunes'

22 November 2012 by
Young's performs strongly in six months of ‘contrasting fortunes'

London-based pub company Young's has enjoyed a strong performance in a half year of "contrasting fortunes", driven by its managed estate.

The company saw revenue climb 10.7% to over £100m for the 26 weeks to 1 October 2012, while it made a pre-tax profit of £14m, compared to a loss of over £16m in the same period a year before.

Young's indicated that the wettest first quarter on record had made trading difficult, but this was followed by a second quarter featuring the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Managed house revenue increased 12.9% over the six months to £93.8m, with same outlet like-for-like sales up 5.7% and managed house operating profit up 15%. Young's, which acquired Geronimo in December 2010, has been focused on maintaining an upmarket managed estate in London and the home counties. It said it had spent £8.9m on managed houses during the period - £6.5m of which was in Young's sites (of which £3.2m was on hotels) and £2.4m within Geronimo.

Meanwhile, it enjoyed a strong six months in accommodation, with improved occupancy and room rates driving RevPAR (revenue per available room)up 2.6% to £54.14 (up from £46.16 two years ago). It added ten rooms during the period, giving it a total of 380 at the period end, with a further 17 expected in the second hald of the year.

Young's opened two new managed pubs in the period, with two more set to re-open before Christmas. It had a total of 121 Young's managed houses (including 16 hotels) and 35 Geronimo pubs at the end of the six month period.

Meanwhile, Young's tenanted estate stood at 81 pubs, and saw total sales fall 14.2% to £6.2m, largely as a result of the sale of five pubs, generating £2.8m. Like-for-like revenue was broadly flat. The company said further disposals were possible but it was now "comfortable" with the estate that remained.

Stephen Goodyear, chief executive of Young's, said: "These excellent results reflect some benefit from the extraordinary events we have seen in London this summer; they have also been achieved despite some periods of truly awful weather. They are therefore testament to the ability of our people to make the very best of our high quality and well invested estate whatever the circumstances.

"We have seen very encouraging like for like growth from both Young's and Geronimo, and across liquor, food and accommodation sales. We have continued to invest in the estate and look forward to seeing the benefit of recent openings in the second half."

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