Marston's focus on food fuels full-year revenue

28th Nov 2013 07:10

- Increased full-year revenue- Boosted by focus on food- Encouraging start to new financial year, lifts dividendBrewer and pub group Marston's served up improved full-year revenue, lifted its dividend payment and noted an encouraging start to its new financial year.Marston's, which owns over 2,000 pubs in the UK and is the world's largest brewer of cask ale, said revenue rose to £782.9m for the 53 weeks ended October 5th from £719.7m a year earlier. Underlying operating profit increased by 6.6% to £168.3m after growth in Destination and Premium and in Brewing. Underlying earnings remained at 12.3p per share. It booked a pre-tax profit of £69.8m compared to a loss of £135.5m a year before. "Our performance in the second half year was strong after a challenging first half year affected by poor weather. The contrast between the two periods was significant," Marston's said in a statement.The company, whose pubs nearly all have gardens attracting families and forty-somethings, was boosted by good weather over the summer. Chief Executive Officer Ralph Findlay noted: "In 2013 we served 30m meals, with food now the principal reason for around 80% of customer visits in our Destination pubs."We have made an encouraging start to the new financial year and remain confident that our proven strategy is aligned to the underlying trends in the sector." Strong food sales helped like-for-like (LFL) sales across Marston's managed division. In Destination and Premium, LFL sales in the seven weeks to November 23rd increased by 3.1% with food sales growth of 4.6% and wet sales up by 1.0%. In Taverns, LFL sales in managed and franchised pubs rose 2.1% and tenanted profits were in line with expectations. In Leased pubs profits were in line with last year and in Brewing its beer brands were performing in line with company expectations.Marston's also announced the disposal of a 202 pubs for £90m to NewRiver Retail. The pub group has already offloaded 130 pubs over the last year, bringing in proceeds of £50m. A final dividend of 4.1p per share has been recommended, up 5% from last year.CJ