Marstons Share News (MARS)

(Sharecast News) - Pub group Marston's posted a drop in full-year profit on Wednesday as it wrote down the value of some of its properties.
In the year to 28 September, underlying pre-tax profit fell to £101m from £104m the year before, on revenue of £1.17bn, up from £1.14bn. On a statutory basis, the company swung to a pre-tax loss of £20m from a profit of £54.3m.

Earnings per share slipped to 13.5p from 13.9p in 2018 and the final dividend was maintained at 4.8p a share.

Marston's noted the impairment of underperforming properties during the year, which resulted in a £43.4m charge.

The company said its performance was "strong" in wet-led pubs and brewing, despite challenging comparatives which included the benefits of the 2018 World Cup and a hot summer, but sales in food-led pubs were "more subdued". It said this was consistent with market trends. Pub like-for-like sales increased by 0.8% and brewing volumes were 1% ahead of the previous year.

Chief executive officer Ralph Findlay said: "We are making good progress with our debt reduction plans and are ahead of schedule in meeting the accelerated £70m of disposal proceeds which we are targeting in the current year.

"We continue to benefit from Marston's balanced business model and our Taverns wet-led community pubs and brewing businesses have both once again outperformed the market, building on an outstanding year last year. We are employing a renewed focus on the proposition in our food-led pubs and remain well placed to benefit from reduced supply in this market segment, of which there is beginning to be some evidence."

The group said trading was "on track" for the initial weeks of the current year and it is ""well prepared" for the festive season. In the first seven weeks of the year, pub LFL sales are ahead of last year, while beer performance is in line with expectations.