Member Article

Young and Co.'s attributes continued profit growth to 'carefully selected' acquisitions

Pub operator Young and Co.’s has continued to see profits increase following a year of recent, ‘carefully selected’ acquisitions.

The London company reported pre-tax profit growth of 3.7 per cent to £19.5m for the 26 weeks ended 28 September 2015.

Young and Co.’s premium managed house estate, which makes up 94.7 per cent of total revenue and 92.8 per cent of pub operating profit, experienced like-for-like sales growth of 5.5 per cent, the fourth consecutive year it has been above 5 per cent.

The Ram Pub Company, the firm’s tenanted division, was confronted by “particularly tough comparative”, the company said. Over a two year period, the division’s sales and profits are up 14.0% and 21.1% respectively.

In the past two years, the pub operator has acquired 15 managed houses for a total investment of £39.2m. During the first six months we invested £21.8m in our business, funded by healthy operating cash flow, up 19.9%.

Stephen Goodyear, chief executive of Young’s, commented: “We are very pleased to report another six months of excellent trading, with particularly strong growth from our managed estate despite tough comparatives and more variable weather over the summer months.

“Our well-invested and well-located pubs, premium product range and the energy and dedication of our teams are crucial to this success. In addition we continue to see the benefit from a number of newly refurbished pubs providing excellent contributions to the success of the first half.

“The second half will benefit from a full contribution from five recent acquisitions including most recently the Canonbury in Islington and the Grocer in Spitalfields Market, two scheduled new openings and the re-opening of a number of our London pubs currently under development.“Momentum has continued into the autumn. Many of our pubs, in south west London in particular, have a deep rooted rugby heritage and have thrown themselves into the World Cup. Despite England’s early demise, they have generated good business from both local and visiting rugby fans alike.”

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