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Mitchells & Butlers PLC on Friday said like-for-like sales continued to ‘outperform the market across all segments’, helping offset pressures of rising labour and food costs. The Birmingham, England-based restaurant and pub operator said pretax profit jumped 20% to £238 million for the 12 months that ended September 27 from £199 million the year prior, with basic earnings per share up 19% to 29.7 pence from 25.0p. Operating profit increased 7.3% to £322 million from £300 million with an operating margin of 11.9%, improved from 11.5%. Revenue climbed 3.9% to £2.71 billion from £2.61 billion a year ago, with like-for-like sales growth of 4.3%. Shares in Mitchells & Butlers were up 8.8% to 278.50p each in London early Friday. Like-for-like growth comprised an increase in food sales of 3.8% and drink sales of 4.3%, driven by strengthening spend per head. Volumes of both food and drink were broadly flat across the year. Other trading revenue lines, primarily from accommodation and machines, grew at a slightly greater rate than food and drink in the year. ‘We are pleased to report another year of strong performance. Like-for-like sales continued to outperform the market across all segments,’ said Chief Executive Phil Urban. Cost headwinds for the financial year of £100 million were driven by labour costs, including increases to the UK National Living Wage and a second half increase in UK employer national insurance contributions. Looking forward to financial 2026, Mitchells & Butlers said it anticipates an increase in the level of cost inflation, to around £130 million, driven by rising labour costs and high increases in food costs, notably meat. This includes a preliminary assessment of the impact of this week’s UK government budget, the company said. ‘We believe that our strong market position, together with the success of our Ignite improvement programme, should enable us to continue to outperform the sector and leave us well positioned to mitigate these increases,’ Mitchells & Butlers said. It has made a ‘solid start’ to financial 2026 with like-for-like sales of 3.8% in the first eight weeks, picking up speed from 3.2% in the fourth quarter of the financial year just ended, the company said. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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