I bought into these in December last year, primarily for the yield, but also for the potential growth of one of the better companies in their sector.


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Marston's Fundamentals (MARS)

Interim Management Statement

Trading
As expected, our trading performance since the announcement of our interim results has been strong.

In Destination and Premium pubs, like-for-like sales for the 42 week period were 2.1% ahead of last year, including like-for-like food sales growth of 3.7% and like-for-like wet sales up 0.5% on last year. Like-for-like sales over the 10 weeks to 20 July were 6.0% ahead of last year. We have opened 16 new pub-restaurants in the year to date.

In our Taverns community pubs, performance in the second-half year to date is in line with last year with growth in our franchise pubs against strong comparatives that included the positive impact of the Euro 2012 football tournament as well as disposals, which are ahead of schedule.

In our Leased pubs, performance for the second half year to date is in line with last year.

In brewing, we have made excellent progress against a declining market, with year to date own-brewed beer volumes up around 6%.

We are ahead of target in disposing of our non-core pubs, with proceeds to date of £35 million and a revised forecast of around £50 million by the year-end.

Numis Add 158.85 164.50 - 185.00 Retains

N+1 Singer Buy 160.85 161.00 161.00 Reiterates

Jefferies International Hold 158.25 157.50 150.00 155.00 Downgrades

My local Morrisons are doing 6 bottles of Pedigree for £7.

just closed half my position here as they are 70% up on the original purchase.

Director purchase http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4676109 Do I read that right as an option taken up and not an award Skinny?

Yes it looks like exercise of 2010 3YR SAYE Option.

Thanks, the sooner they start lay these RNS's out properly the better.

Year-end Trading Statement


Marston's PLC issues the following update on trading for the year ended 5 October 2013. The preliminary results will be announced on 28 November 2013.

Trading
Our performance for the second half-year has been encouraging, with good weather over the summer balancing poor weather during the first half-year.

In Destination and Premium pubs, like-for-like sales were 2.2% ahead of last year including like-for-like food sales growth of 3.7% and wet like-for-like sales growth of 0.2%. Over the last 11 weeks like-for-like sales have grown by 2.6%. Operating margins are expected to be slightly ahead of last year.

In our Taverns community pubs, profits for the full year are expected to be behind last year due to poor weather in the first half-year, a greater than anticipated level of disposals and a more subdued performance in our tenanted pubs in line with market trends. The performance of our managed and franchised pubs has been robust with like-for-like sales in line with last year and up 2% in the second half-year.

In our Leased pubs, profit for the year is expected to be in line with last year, with an improved performance in the second half year.

In Brewing, our own-brewed beer volumes are 6% higher than last year, outperforming an ale market down 3%. Premium cask ale volumes were up 4% in the year and bottled ale was up 19%. We continue to lead the market in both of these segments.

Estate Development
We are focussing on significantly improving the quality of our pub estate appropriate for both current and future consumer needs.

We completed 22 new pub-restaurants in the year with returns remaining strong. Over the last five years our national new-build pub programme has proven highly successful, generating strong returns and improving the quality of our pub estate. The 2012 estate valuation also indicated that the new-build pubs were valued at 50% above build cost, generating significant value to our shareholders.

As a result of this success we propose to accelerate the new-build programme and are targeting 25-30 openings over the next few years, with a visible pipeline of sites to 2017.

We have disposed of 130 pubs and other assets in the year generating proceeds of around £50 million, higher than we originally anticipated. A more aggressive churn of the estate will improve returns over time, assist the funding of the new-build programme and reduce our exposure to the tenanted sector. We aim to achieve disposal proceeds of £60-70 million for financial year 2014, principally from the Taverns estate.

Commenting, Ralph Findlay, Chief Executive, said:
"We are encouraged by our performance in the second-half year after challenging weather in the first half.

The performance of our new-build pubs is very strong. We have developed plans to accelerate the programme and intend to dispose more aggressively of lower-end pubs in order to pursue our key objectives of sustainable growth, improving returns and reducing leverage over time.

We are confident that we are significantly improving the quality of our pub estate for both today's and tomorrow's consumer."

N+1 Singer Buy 144.65 161.00 161.00 Reiterates

Full year results tomorrow - 28th.

Ah yes. So they are.

Final Results

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

· Group revenue - up 9% to £782.9 million (2012: £719.7 million).

· Underlying operating profit - up 7% to £168.3 million (2012: £157.9 million).

· Underlying PBT - up 1% to £88.4 million, despite higher interest costs.

· Return on capital - 0.5% improvement versus 2012.

· Final dividend - up 5% to 4.1 pence per share.

· Bank facility extension to November 2018 - extends maturity of Group debt.

· Current trading - encouraging start to year.


OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS AND STRATEGY

· Destination and Premium - strong sales and profit growth driven by new-build investment, including 22 openings in the year, performing ahead of target

· Taverns - H2 profit growth in managed pubs and 600 pubs converted to franchise

· Brewing - revenue and profit up with increased market share

· Acceleration of new-builds - increased planned rate of expansion of new-builds to 25-30 sites per annum

· Disposals of lower turnover wet-led pubs

- 130 pubs and other assets sold or exchanged during the year for c.£50 million

- Agreement to dispose of 202 sites for £90 million at 7.6x EBITDA multiple

- Target £60-70 million disposals per annum in 2014 and 2015 from Taverns estate


CURRENT TRADING - 7 WEEKS TO 23 NOVEMBER

· Destination and Premium -like-for-like sales up 3.1%; like-for-like food sales up 4.6%; like- for-like wet
sales up 1.0%

· Taverns- managed and franchised like-for-like sales up 2.1%; tenanted profits in line with
expectations

· Leased - like-for-like profits in line with last year

· Brewing - in line with expectations

Disposal of 202 pubs

NewRiver to acquire portfolio of 202 public houses from Marston's Plc

Well on the surface of it that pub sell-off looks very good for Marstons.

Looks like it Stan, this sentence sums it up.

" This disposal is consistent with Marston's strategy to target growth through investment in higher turnover pub-restaurants, improve the quality of its estate and reduce its exposure to smaller wet-led pubs. "

Yes, sounds very positive and consistent.

N+1 Singer Buy 156.90 155.10 157.00 157.00 Reiterates

Numis Buy 156.95 155.10 185.00 185.00 Retains

Down nearly 7%, presumably becuase of this

British pub and brewing company Marston's (>> Marston's PLC) said rising sales, strong Christmas bookings and plans to concentrate more on food-focused outlets will boost its prospects after posting full-year pretax profit slightly below analysts' forecasts.