Greene King gets them in despite poor summer

Old Speckled Hen brewer Greene King shrugged off the Olympics and the poor weather to make a robust start to the financial year.

The firm, which operates around 2,300 pubs, restaurants and hotels across Great Britain, reported like-for-like sales up 5.1% in its retail business.

It said the Olympics only had a minimal net impact on overall retail performance in the 18 weeks to September.

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In London, the City and the West End were generally quiet, it said, while in the suburbs, including Realpubs and Capital Pub Company sites, trading was noticeably stronger.

The retail arm achieved like-for-like food sales growth of 5.2%, like-for-like drink sales growth of 5.0% and like-for-like room sales growth of 4.9%.

In Pub Partners, its pub letting arm, after 16 weeks average EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) per pub was up 3.5%.

Like-for-like EBITDA in its core estate was down 0.5%, while total beer volume was up 0.4%.

"We believe underlying trading trends across the business have been maintained through the summer, despite the disappointing weather," the management statement said.

"This is encouraging for the rest of the year, although we expect consumer confidence to remain subdued."