Greene King outperforms but damp weather harming current year sales

(Sharecast News) - Greene King reported that it had returned to market outperformance on Thursday, due to growth from its pub company and brewing and brands segments, although wet weather did hurt sales in the post year-end period.Revenue for the year ended 28 April came in at £2.2bn - an increase of 2% compared to the same period last year - while profit before tax rose by 2% to £246.9m when adjusted to exclude the impact of exceptional and non-underlying items.The pub company segment, which manages a chain of about 2,900 pubs, restaurants and hotels, saw revenue rise by 2% to £1.8bn after the impact of last summer's Football World Cup, while revenue from the brewing and brands segment - which makes drinks such as Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale - increased by 6% to £227.6m.Overall profit before tax, however, slid 13% to £172.8m, after operating costs increased by 2% to £1.9bn and finance costs rose by 19% to £143m.Even so, the FTSE 250-listed company said it was in the midst of an ongoing cost mitigation programme that focissed primarily on the pub company, which it said made good progress delivering sustainable procurement savings on labour productivity and efficiencies, and reducing non-direct costs.Nick Mackenzie, chief executive of Greene King, said: "The business delivered good results last year, regaining trading momentum in pub company and returning to market outperformance while fulfilling a strong cost mitigation programme and making further progress refinancing the Spirit debenture. The existing strategy we have in place has led the business through challenging times."In the first eight weeks of the new financial year, like-for-like sales from the pub company segment were below last year's strong comparatives amid poor weather, while the business acknowledged that political and consumer uncertainty was likely to continue to weigh on confidence.Analysts from Liberum said the results were in line with expectations and commented that the dividend remaining flat at 33.2p per share should be well received by the market amid industry cost headwinds that are expected to continue through the current year.Greene King's shares were 1.45% higher at 588.40p at 0813 BST.