Fuller's has record Christmas but sees more costs this year

30th Jan 2014 08:47

A record Christmas has helped keep pub and brewing group Fuller, Smith & Turner on track to hit annual profit targets, but it said it may incur extra investment costs this year.Fullers, which runs 176 managed pubs and hotels and 208 tenanted pubs in southern England and the Midlands, said food sales helped it boost like-for-like sales in its managed pubs and hotels by 7.2% in the last 10 weeks. In the 43 weeks to January 25th, they rose 7.7%.Like-for-like profits in its tenanted pubs were up 2% in the year to date and total beer and cider volumes in the Fuller's Beer Company grew by 1%.The beer company brews London Pride and a range of award-winning ales such as Chiswick bitter, ESB and 1845.The purchase of two pubs in the third quarter led to a slight rise in net debt at December 28 to £137.7m against £131.4m at the half-year.Chief Executive Simon Emeny said: "As a result of this good performance we have decided to bring some additional projects forward into this financial year. "Obviously there are some costs associated with this move, but we believe it makes better business sense to further improve our pubs at the earliest opportunity."We are confident of meeting our expectations for the full year and look forward to updating the market on 6 June 2014, when we announce the company's preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 29 March 2014."Shares were flat at 969.5p in early trading in London.PW