Member Article

Profits up at Young & Co.’s after a year of fruitful acquisitions

Young & Co.’s has seen profits increase for the year, as it begins to reap the benefits of several major acquisitions.

Stats and Analysis

The London pub company has seen pre-tax profit rise to £36.6m from £26.6m (2014), with revenue also spiking at £227m compared to £210m in the previous year.

The company’s managed house division, which comprise its managed house division, had 166 pubs (including 22 hotels) and 80 tenancies at year end, spanning a mixture of London destinations including Borough Market, Covent Garden, Mayfair, the Southbank and Westminster in central London alongside affluent London neighbourhoods such as Islington, Richmond, Wandsworth and Wimbledon.

In the 2014/15 financial year, Young & Co.’s invested £24.3m in acquisitions. In the summer, the company acquired the Fox & Anchor pub and hotel in Smithfield Market and the White Bear in Kennington.

In October, it purchased the 580 Group for £10.4 million, adding four large London pubs in ‘attractive areas.’

Young and & Co.‘s rebranded tenant business, Ram Pub Company, returned to growth with total revenue up 9.6% and a like-for-like growth of 3%. The company invested £2.1m in Ram, with major developments at the Butcher’s Hook, Dog & Bull (Croydon), Grand Junction Arms (Harlesden), Grey Horse (Kingston), Hope (Norwood), Horse Pond (Castle Cary), Riverside (Chelmsford) and the Unicorn (Somerton).

Comment

Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive of Young’s, commented: “Young’s has had another extremely good year, with further robust profit growth driven by increased revenue and strong operational management, reaping the rewards of our consistently high levels of investment in our estate over many years.

We have added eight pubs, 76 new hotel rooms, invested significantly in our estate, and we remain actively in the market for further acquisitions - of pubs and hotels that complement our premium positioning either where we currently trade or in market towns and cities in the south of England. We have ample financial resources to continue to pursue this proven growth strategy.

Trading in the current year has started promisingly, with managed house revenue in the first seven weeks up 8.1% in total and 5.6% like-for-like. We have a number of new pubs to come on stream this year, and we look forward to this autumn’s Rugby World Cup drawing people into Young’s pubs in south west London and beyond. Whilst the strength of last year’s performance sets the bar ever higher, we are confident that we can make further progress.“

Summary

Young & Co.’s is benefitting from a key of strategic acquisitions in the South East and London, with plans to expand into smaller ‘market towns’ and other parts of the UK in the near future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .