Greene King Share News (GNK)

(Sharecast News) - The hot summer spell and football World Cup boosted sales at Greene King in the first 18 weeks of the year as Brits inhaled 3.7m pints of beer during England's seven matches.The brewer said positive momentum in its Pub Company unit continued through the summer with like-for-like (LFL) sales up 2.8%, ahead of the market, which was up 1.2%.Growth over the last 10 weeks was 3.2%, the company said."This strong performance was underpinned by the ongoing benefits from our sales driving investment...and boosted by the weather and a successful World Cup," the company said.Greene King branded pubs saw LFL sales up driven by "very strong...drink growth" - LFL sales on the day of the England's defeat to Croatia in the semi-final were up 61%.However, LFL net profit in the Pub Partners operation was -0.4% after 16 weeks, impacted by the timing of higher overhead costs, Greene King said, adding that it expect this to balance out over the year.Total beer volumes in Brewing & Brands were up 4.0% and own-brewed volumes were up 0.3%."Our cost mitigation programme to help offset gross cost inflation of around £45m-£50m is on track and we are making good progress with our refinancing programme, which will reduce the cost of debt and increase flexibility," the company said."We remain on course to dispose of 100-110 pubs this year and expect to open around nine new pubs."