Food offering driving growth at Mitchells and Butlers

Pubs owner Mitchells and Butlers saw profits before tax subside slightly at the half year stage but at least the key metric of like-for-like sales (LFL) was going in the right direction.

Statutory profit before tax in the 28 weeks to April 7th was down £1m at £42m.

LFL sales were up 0.2% year-on-year since the last trading update, which was 11 weeks before the end of the reporting period, despite LFL "wet" sales falling 0.8%; food sales picked up the slack and rose 0.9% in the 11 weeks to April 7th.

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For the full 28-week reporting period, LFL sales were up 2.7%, with food sales up 3.4% and drink sales up 2.2%.

More to follow ...

JH