Greene King cautious despite sales rise

30th Jun 2011 11:23

Greene King posted a sharp rise in profits as revenues moved higher in the year to 1 May, but the pub group and brewer foresees another "testing" year. Pre-tax profits climbed to £140m from £123m on revenues that were up to £1.04bn from £984m. The dividend climbed by 7.4% to 23.1p.Greene King, which runs the Old English Inns and Loch Fyne Restaurants chains and brews ales such as Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen, said that, after an unusually strong April "consumers then reined in their expenditure in May." Trading was more "normalised" in June, the company said."We anticipate another challenging year as continued high inflation and the impact of government cutbacks limit consumer spending power," the company said. "Despite this, we remain confident of the prospects for Greene King as our retail expansion strategy and strong group-wide operational performance, driven by value, service and quality, will underpin another year of growth and significant progress. "Greene King operates 2,429 pubs and restaurants across Britain including 915 "retail" pubs and restaurants, which are managed centrally, and 1,514 pubs that are tenanted or leased to landlords.---RG