Strong Christmas for Greene King

Pubs group Greene King saw retail and food like-for-like (LFL) sales rise 8.2% and 11.1%, respectively, in the last seven weeks, helped by an exceptionally strong Christmas week's trading.

"This was another strong performance driven by the strength of our business and our continued commitment to providing unrivalled value, service and quality to our customers," said Chief Executive Rooney Anand.

Christmas week LFL sales jumped 17% with customers looking for "enjoyment and some respite from the financial pressures they are facing," according to Anand.

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Greene King sold a record 365,000 Christmas meals in December, with food sales on Christmas Day alone totalling £1.7m.

Full-year margins in Retail are expected to be flat on last year, while profit, cashflow and the balance sheet remain in line with expectations.

"Although we expect another difficult environment for the UK consumer in 2012, we remain confident that we will continue to deliver growth and value to our shareholders, driven by the strength of business, our Retail expansion strategy and our focus on offering unrivalled value, service and quality to our customers," the firm said.