Jennings announce strong figures as W&D makes bid official

27 April 2005
Jennings announce strong figures as W&D makes bid official

Jennings Brothers revealed strong full-year turnover and profit growth today, as suitor Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W&D) made its £46m offer for the pub company official.

Pre-tax profit for the year ended 26 February increased 21% to £3.45m (2004: £2.85m). Turnover grew by 5.6% to £18.2m (2004: £17.24m).

Jennings's chairman John Rudgard credited the strong performance on the decision to concentrate on its 128 leased and tenanted pubs, the majority of which are in Cumbria.

W&D currently has almost 27% of Jennings's shares and its £45.8m offer represents a 32% premium on the pre-offer share price.

The company has promised it will not close Jennings's Cockermouth brewery in Cumbria, but the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has called on shareholders to block the deal.

A Camra spokesman said: "W&D's promises to keep Jennings Brewery open, however genuine, are no guarantee. In 1999 W&D acquired Mansfield Brewery and closed it within two years."

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking