LONDON (Alliance News) - Greene King PLC on Wednesday reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year boosted by a strong rise in revenue, but warned that consumer confidence going forward will be hit by the EU referendum result.
The pub operator and brewer said its pretax profit in the year ended May 1 grew by more than half to GBP189.9 million from GBP118.2 million the year before, as revenue also rose by more than half to GBP2.07 billion from GBP1.32 billion. The growth was driven by the integration of smaller rival Spirit Pub Co.
By division, Pub Company like-for-like sales increased by 1.5%, while Pub Partners like-for-like net income was up 2.7% and Brewing & Brands own-brewed volume grew by 2.9%. Total revenue in each of those divisions rose by 69%, 54% and 2.2%, respectively.
Greene King added that the integration and synergies following its acquisition of Spirit Pub last year are progressing ahead of plan, having achieved GBP16.7 million of cost synergies in the full year. This beat its year-one target of GBP12 million.
Greene King said it has made a strong start to the current year, with Pub Company like-for-like sales up 2.8% so far, helped by the Euro 2016 football championship and better weather in May.
Greene King will pay a total dividend of 32.05 pence, which is a 7.7% increase on the prior year.
"I am pleased to report a strong start to the new financial year, although it is likely that consumer confidence will be affected by Brexit in the near term. However, Greene King has a strong track record of performing well in challenging conditions, we are a resilient business with a talented team and a strong balance sheet, and we will benefit from the opportunities created by the Spirit acquisition. We are well placed to continue delivering value to our shareholders," Chief Executive Rooney Anand said in a statement.
Shares in Greene King were trading up 4.3% at 792.50 pence early on Wednesday.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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