IC article1 Sep 2016 19:50
This is what will be in tomorrow's mag:
Half full
Punch recovering
Pub group Punch Taverns appears to have defied initial Brexit gloom with average profits per pub rising 4 per cent. New management recently allowed its publicans, the majority of whom have historically operated under the so-called beer tie, to opt for a new model – the retail contract option. This involves Punch retaining the sales and cost of sales, but paying publicans a percentage to remunerate staff with. Another key development is the hefty £225m reduction (16 per cent) in net debt, which has brought the net debt/cash profits ratio down to 6.6 times – down from 7.2 times last August.
Also:
In spite of some doom and gloom about post-Brexit Britain, it doesn’t seem our appetitie for going to the pub has been dampened. Pub group Punch Taverns (PUB) has seen the average profit per pub rise 4 per cent, doubly encouraging given recently-installed management there overhauled the way the group operates. It allowed its publicans, the majority of whom have operated under the so-called beer tie, to opt for a new model. This is called the retail contract option, which is where Punch retains the sales and cost of sales but pays the publican a percentage of this which is used to remunerate staff. A total of 177 pubs have opted to run under this model, with 97 of these already doing so or close to converting. Another key development is the hefty £225m reduction (16 per cent) in net debt, which has brought the net debt/cash profits ratio down to 6.6 times - down from 7.2 times last August. And it has announced an additional £83m of property and land sales on top of those it had previously announced.
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